Black-Like Spirit
by Pandapika II
Summary: A gym leader from a unrecognized region finds herself caught in a bind when most of her best friends are stolen from her, only for a man she'd only heard of from the hype he'd gotten in her hometown to whisk her away to a different region entirely for reasons much of the world's trainers would rather not discover... Kalos isn't included because I don't want to edit it in there.
1. Skippable Exposition and an Adventure

**Hello! If you're reading this, then that means you're reading this fanfiction, and I'm very happy you're doing so! I know there's a lot of Pokemon fanfics out there (most of which ship Absol/Blue/whoever X Everything that moves and has ever moved in the history of forever), so I'm glad you've selected mine as the one you're going to be reading today! The beginning where I describe the region is a little dull, so maybe you'd want to skip down to where I start actually writing about a plot instead of just throwing exposition at you like a douche if you don't feel like you need all of this. Don't worry; most of it doesn't take place in Literoa, anyway, so all you'd really need to skim from this is names and things like that. Other than that, I feel like everything else gets glossed over later. Enjoy, and please send comments this way so I can take your advice and praise (hopefully! I won't be very happy if I get flamed and stuff) as genially as possible!**

The Literoa Region. It is considered by many Pokemon trainers to be the ultimate challenge, and it's generally agreed that if you manage to defeat the Champion of this region, Orlagh, then you're one of the strongest Pokemon Trainers around.

No, I'm not an inspired young trainer trying to conquer this small, new, and great region we have here. In fact, I'm a gym leader here, the seventh, to be exact. My name is Rei, and I specialize with Ghost-type Pokemon. I suppose I'll spare you from my full backstory now, since I have some other stuff to mention first.

If you're starting a journey for the first time, you don't start here; you'd be blown away in a second if you don't know what you're doing. Thus, the people who live here are mostly just families who don't plan on having their Pokemon fight. Usually, if you wanted to start in Literoa, you'd have to know a lot about Pokemon from books already before you'd want to try.

Then, there are the cities and towns and all that stuff. The place my gym's in, Poemira Town, is pretty small; in fact, out of all of the places with gyms in the entire region, it's the smallest, and the only town to have a gym. Thus, only a few people live here (Not even I have a house here, I pretty much live in my gym), and I know most of them pretty well. But if we want to go in the order newer trainers go in when they try to get through us, I suppose we should start with Novelatta Town.

It's a small, cozy place where docile families and the sorts live. Not really any of them try to travel around our region, but if they do want to start an adventure, regularly they travel to Kanto (My home region) or Johto first. You know, it's the trademark cozy first town; no gym, no Pokemon Center, none of the usual stuff. The only thing that's different about Novelatta is the fact that the Pokemon Day Care center is there, so most kids living there usually become Pokemon Breeders and never try to travel too much unless they want to see the other Day Cares around the world.

The farthest most of these Breeders go from home to probably to Lyrina Town. It's got the big department store like the one in Saffron back in Kanto, so they always go there to get stuff like Everstones and Incenses and all that semi-useful stuff.

Then, if you go south-west from Lyrina Town, you'll get to Poemira Town. Finally, right? But I guess you're wondering how this can be if I'm the seventh gym leader. Wouldn't the seventh gym be, like, farther in the region, you'd think? Well, no, but that's only because there's a certain something you have to do before you enter Poemira, but I'm not going to get into any more detail than that, because then I'll have some level five munchkins running around in my gym, and that's not how I roll.

Now, for the real gym, you want to go to Prosyn City, which is in the opposite direction of Poemira. There, you'll find Hisashi, the Psychic-type gym leader. This guy's really quiet, and won't really budge unless you mess with him long enough, but since he's a year or two younger than me and sixth leagues below me, he can't really do much. But if you really want to know how I can go over and messing with him while he meditates with his Pokemon without Orlagh or one of the other gym leaders scolding me or something, I usually don't go over there myself; I send a Gastly, because there are a ton of them floating around in my attic and I figured I might as well use them for something, since my team's been assembled for a few years now and I don't really want to use another Gengar. And it works out perfectly because on the route just north-east of Prosyn is a little place I love going to at night; the Cave of Souls.

It might sound threatening at first—if you're not into Ghost-types, that is—but really, it's just a cave full of Gastly, Misdreavus, Shuppet, and Duskull. But anyway, it's a really good place to go at night, because if the ghosts trust you, they can go out and find Dusk Stones for you. But if they don't like you, you can expect for all sorts of nasty things to happen to you. The only thing I don't like about all of this is that when some dumb snot-nosed brat runs in there and ends up getting jinxed by the ghosts in there, Orlagh and Yukio (I'll explain him later…) force me to go and help, since they think that all the Ghost-types in the region are all under my jurisdiction. Usually it's something really time-consuming and tedious, so you can imagine why I hate doing that so much. Either that, or the kid's already seriously messed up ('messed up' because any further detail might make the ghosts there seem evil, but they're actually really nice and I don't want to give them a bad rep just because some stupid kids were being, well, stupid) and I have to take him to the hospital in Dichen Town, which, even though it sounds relatively easy to get the kid there, I have to go through five different towns and cities and a forest. And I can't just Fly there, either, because my weight plus a kid is too heavy for the only Pokemon I have access to that can use Fly, which is Hisashi's Xatu. It's a long story explaining how to gain the ghosts' trust, so I'll cover that later.

So then, get through the Cave alright with the ghosts' blessing and you're in Mockino Town. Apparently this town is where the first people who ever lived in Literoa got their first Pokemon and lived for hundreds of years, but that's just a myth. In reality, this town is just a tourist trap, and is usually the most crowded place in Literoa, despite the actual town itself being much smaller than all the other ones. It's always a real pain in the butt getting through this town, because if the tourists see anyone even slightly important trying to get through, they'll jump them and try to get their autograph and put them on TV and all that. Since I'm the most, ahem, _hospitable_ of the gym leaders (so long as you don't annoy me), they'll often chase me all around town and attack my team with some Pokemon before I have to send out my Mismagius to confound them so I can make my escape. And since this is one of the cities in Literoa I mentioned I'd have to go through to get kids to the hospital in Dichen, I usually end up with at least one fainted Pokemon when I get back to my gym—for more than one reason, which, again, I'll begrudgingly explain later.

If you finally manage to get out of Mockino, you'll end up in the location of the second gym in Verseti City. This is probably going to be the biggest city you'll see in Literoa in a while if you're starting in Novelatta like I said most people do. Here, the gym leader is Edric, the only person in Literoa who Yukio dislikes more than me—but only slightly. He's into Ground-types (mostly), and I guess he's a pretty cool guy, but sometimes he can get really stuck up, cocky, and generally annoying, so you might just want to say hi, maybe give him a high five and talk for a little bit, then get out of there as soon as you can, because while he may seem like a hyper eccentric guy for a while, eventually he'll challenge you to a battle and force you to fight him, and God help you if you win, because he'll never let it down. In fact, don't lose, either, because then he'll brag for the rest of his life about it.

Once you're out of Verseti, you'll be in Scriptana Forest. It's a pretty big place, and it's pretty and all, but I never, ever like going there, because if you go north, well… That's the thing I've been trying not to talk about yet, and since I still don't' have to yet, I'll procrastinate a little bit more and just explain where you'd end up if you took one of the two other paths.

If you keep going west, you'll probably get blocked off by boulders or a tree or something. If you were able to get over this annoying roadblock, you'd be in Autora City, where Maeveen the Poison-type gym leader is. It's mostly her fault that the stuff's in the way since she's usually too busy singing karaoke in her gym and shopping to care. The stupid thing about this is that Yukio doesn't get on her about it because she's his daughter, yet he'll scold me for days and days if a Haunter starts haunting a family in Lyrina. Really, the favoritism going on with the gym leaders (and in the Pokemon League, too) is really ridiculous sometimes. If I had a nugget for every time I get scolded for something that's hardly my fault, I'd be the richest Pokemon Trainer in the world…

So, since the path to Autora and the third gym is always blocked, then what do you do? Well, you can either try to knock the stuff out of the way with some really big Pokemon (which I lack), or go a little farther west and then go north, and end up in Comedero town. It's a small place which is renowned for its good food, entertainment, and gambling, so usually I'd prefer going there instead of dealing with Maeveen any day. In fact, sometimes I get Hisashi to lend me his Xatu so I can Fly over there and either perform at some of the comedy clubs or just to let my Pokemon play with the younger kids there while their parents are busy. Generally, this is the only thing Yukio likes about me (other than my abilities, because he knows I could defeat him in battle if I needed to), but now he's even starting to scold me for that because he doesn't want the kids to get scared, even though none of them do. Oh, wait, hold on a second…I still haven't explained who Yukio is, have I? Well, I'll get to him in due time, just like I'll get to…_ugh_… in due time.

Well, if you get through Comedero with everything you own intact (even I find myself with some lost money when I go there, so check your pockets) and beat Maeveen, you'll end up in Hemink. I guess you could call it the city of crossroads, because that's really all its there for. The only other notable thing about there is that Hemink is usually where retired old people go to live and it's really intertwined with nature. Personally, I think this place is pretty nice, although my Dusknoir sneaks out at night to go over there for some reason I can only guess at (even though my guess is a pretty good one that I'd rather not share—you can call it 'classified ghost-related business' if you want), thus why I only bring Sableye with me when I go there to visit, and even then I ask one of my friends to watch my other Pokemon and keep them from leaving. And in case you were wondering, I'll get to my friend in a second.

If you go north from Hemink, there'll be a lake. Since most trainers won't be able to use Surf at that time, they'll go south-east like they're supposed to, and come across a crossroad—the road on the right (though on a map it's left) leads to Dichen, but there's a scanner there to keep unauthorized trainers out until they have to go there, so newbies won't be able to go that way. So, you're supposed to go the other way to Magaziti City, where one of my friends (not the one I was talking about earlier), Aika, is the gym leader. She's a really nice girl, but she gets her feelings hurt really easily. Even though I like placing traps around for people to step on and get scared by, she's the only person I don't do it to, because honestly, she's jumpy enough as it is. Maybe it has something to do with her obsession with Flying-types, but I don't know.

By then, Aika's probably given you Fly, so you're supposed to Fly to Verseti so you can get to the town I was talking about earlier—the one on the northernmost path in the forest that I didn't want to talk about, and is the reason why I hate going through the Scriptana Forest; Tragetu City. Here, my worst enemy is the gym leader—Daven. As all the hints point to, he's a Dark-type user, but believe me, my hatred for him comes from more reasons than just that (because in case you didn't know, Ghosts don't like Dark-types).

Basically, Daven is a jerk. He's about five or six years older than me (considering I'm fourteen, that means he's, like, nineteen or something like that), so he calls me an immature little kid just because of that. Not only that, but whenever I go through the forest and go past the road leading to Tragetu, he'll always have that stupid Weavile of his waiting in ambush for me, and he'll try to sweep my entire team. In an ordinary situation, he'll only get Sableye KO'ed (Because Sableye is usually the only one outside of his Pokeball), but there have been times where I've been trying to take a kid to Dichen and his entire team have been lying in wait, and since I usually don't bring my all-star team of Pokemon on this kind of journey because they need breaks now and again, he'll knock all of them out, and then he'll go off to Yukio and tell him that I didn't get the kid there because I'm incompetent and didn't bother trying to take him there at all, which always gets me in trouble since Yukio for some reason trusts Daven wholeheartedly, even though he's a lying rat. Then, to make things even worse, he'll actually attack me with his Pokemon after I'm all out of usable Pokemon and take the kid to Dichen himself just to be a show-off! What a jerk, right?

Anyway, if you can manage to get that guy's goat without him trying to kill you, he'll give you the HM for Surf, so then you have to go back to Hemink so you can Surf over Lake Rowlilm and get to Dratiri City, where my other friend (and _best_ friend, but don't tell Aika or she'll start to cry) Flicka is the gym leader. Even though she has a city by a big lake, she specializes in Fire-types, and she's really good with them, too. She has a bit of a temper (which makes all too much sense) and yells a lot, but that's all covering her secret hobby—roleplaying. I've only caught her once in the basement of her gym, but seeing is how whenever she's not upstairs taking challengers, you can hear noises downstairs. When trainers first started to hear these noises and got freaked out, word came to Yukio and—you'll never believe this one, this never happens!—he blamed me. Big surprise, am I right? He thought that there was a ghost haunting the basement, so he sent me to go sort it out. He actually threatened my job as a gym leader, too, so I flew over there with Hisashi's Xatu to go check it out; that's when I found her out. It was really funny, but she got really freaked out and started to get all frazzled, so I promised I wouldn't rat her out and told Yukio that there was a family of Dusclops living in her basement instead and that I took care of it.

So then, after you beat Flicka, you have to go to your favorite town in Literoa—Poemira! That's where you'll be fighting me. Like I've said many, many, times, I'm a Ghost-type specialist, and my favorite Pokemon on my team is my Sableye, so good luck, I guess.

If you beat me, you can get through the gate blocking you from Dichen with a special item I'll give you. If you just run through there (all that's special is the hospital), you'll be in Biblini City, the final city, where my 'boss' Yukio is the gym leader, and specializes in Ice-types. He's a jerk who blames me for every ghost-related problem in Literoa, but you already know that, so I'll just explain him in general. I've already said that Maeveen's his daughter, so you already know he's much older than me. In fact, he's about fifty-six or something like that, but I wouldn't know since I'm not invited to his birthday parties. He's in charge of all the other gyms leaders in the region, and works closely with Orlagh, meaning that if I did something to tick him off (or if he _thinks_ I did something), he could go to Orlagh with it and have me shipped back to Kanto in a heartbeat. Fortunately though, Orlagh's not an old jerk like him, so I'm sure I have nothing to worry about.

Then, once you have all the badges, climb Mt. Satirso, and at the very summit will be the Pokemon League. I'd explain the members of the Elite Four, but I don't know anything about them since they never leave the Pokemon League. But I can tell you about the champion, Orlagh. She's a shining golden woman, and she's certainly no pushover. Believe me—even with my best Pokemon at hand, I _still_ can't defeat her. She's genuinely nice, and actually comes to visit me in my gym and intentionally sets off traps to make me laugh, but after I found out she's doing it on purpose, it's not as funny, so I'm trying to think of better ways to hide them so she won't notice them.

Well, then, now that we've gotten out of the way, let's get to the real story I want to tell; the only real reason I just explained this region for you is because most people have never heard of it, and if I just start off using all the city names and the gym leaders' names without any sort of introduction, you're going to be scratching your head the entire time, so I figured I'd just introduce the region right off the bat so I can get to the point and stay on the point. You know what I'm saying?

But anyway, yes, this story is about something entirely different than the usual story from a trainer that went from small-town kid to big shot champion, but that should already seem really obvious, since I'm already a gym leader and that's all I really want to be for now, so yeah. As I explain all the details, you'll probably be able to piece everything together, and I'll try my hardest to keep my commentary out of it, but chances are it's going to happen at the parts I'm most fired up about (mostly the parts retaining to Daven and Yukio), so if you just wanted a good story with a reliable narrator, go somewhere else for the story. Maybe by now Hisashi has written something about it, so if you want that, go to him.

Anyway, all of this stuff pretty much started one day. It was a relatively nice day, though it was kind of chilly, and I was busy training my Sableye with some of the Gastly in my attic, when suddenly my Xtransceiver started to ring. I pressed a few buttons on it, and the screen depicted Yukio's old face. I tried to hide the annoyance from my tone as I asked, "What is it?"

"A child got lost in Scriptana Forest," Yukio answered sternly.

"So? I thought the woods were under Maeveen's jurisdiction." Although I knew Maeveen wouldn't care if the rest of the Literoa region was on fire so long as she could still go shopping with her friends, I figured letting Yukio remember that instead of doing whatever he says like a tool would be the better idea.

"They're under Edric's jurisdiction," Yukio lied, looking somewhat peeved, "but I'm sending you because Daven said he saw that a Mismagius was responsible for getting the child lost."

"_Of course, I should have known he did this…"_ I thought irritably, before I said, "Yeah, whatever, I'll get there as fast as I can."

"You'd better. And next time, don't be snappy with me." In an instant, the screen of my Xtransceiver cut back to the current time, and I growled.

"Well, we won't let him get the better of us this time," I ensured to Sableye as he sent out the rest of my team; Gengar, Mismagius, Chandelure, and Dusknoir. Then, for good measure, I went into the basement of my gym, which was styled pink and puffy with all sorts of furniture just for the Pokemon I was going to bring with me. "Iggle!" I called, not seeing my Pokemon until she inflated herself from where she was deflated on the sofa in the far corner of the spacious room.

"Wigglytuff~!" Iggle exclaimed happily, jumping up into my arms as I embraced her tightly. I glanced behind me because I could feel one of my Pokemon standing right behind me, and saw that Sableye was sticking out his tongue. _"Jealous, are we?"_ I joked in my mind.

Wait, wait, wait, you must be saying. Why do you have a Wigglytuff if you're a Ghost-type user? Well, Iggle is a special exception. I don't usually use her in battles, and let her live in the basement of the gym in a room all her own. She was the first Pokemon I ever got in Lavender Town, though she was an Igglybuff at the time, hence the somewhat stupid nickname. I can easily say that out of all the Pokemon I would consider making a team of if I didn't specialize in anything, she would be the lowest-leveled, although she has a lot of powerful attacks for me to use, making her a pretty good Pokemon. I wish I could use her in my gym, but usually she's sleeping whenever I go downstairs to check on her, and thus can't fight. Does she lure herself to sleep with her own singing? I have no idea, but it doesn't matter; Daven's going to be sorry that he ever tried to trip me up with his stupid Dark-type Pokemon.

I let her go from the hug, and said, "Iggle, we and everyone else are going to the forest to save some little kid and defeat Daven. Are you hungry? Do you want an Aspear Berry before we leave?"

Iggle nodded happily, muttering an agreeing 'Wig!', and I opened my bag and pulled out the Aspear Berry I had promised her. "Here you go," I said, handing it to her.

Behind me, I noticed Sableye was glaring at me a bit. "Hey, don't think I forgot you!" I said, reaching into my bag again and this time getting out a shiny gemstone and giving it to him.

"Anyone else?" I offered to the rest of my Pokemon, but none of them seemed to want one at the moment, so I just waited for Iggle and Sableye to finish up before I sent the rest of my team into their Pokeballs and left my gym, Sableye perching on my shoulder as usual. I had sent Iggle into her Pokeball, too, because if Daven's Pokemon saw her, they'd know what I was planning and flee before I can get back at them.

I left Poemira and got through Lyrina easily enough, and Prosyn went relatively well (Hisashi even nodded respectfully to me when I came in to say hi). As you can expect, the Cave of Souls was a very easy part, and the spirits in there searched around for a bit when I entered and gave me a few gemstones for Sableye to eat whenever he got hungry.

After getting out of the cave and reaching the route directly before Mockino Town, I took off my hat and stuffed in my bag, removed my jacket and tied it around my waist, and got a black jacket out from my bag to replace the old one, along with a pink baseball cap. After I hid all my hair with the cap and put on the jacket to hide the upper part of my clothes, I put on some sunglasses and looked into a reflective puddle nearby. "This should be a good enough disguise," I muttered to Sableye, but he was too distracted trying to unzip my bag and get the gems we had just gotten out so he could eat them. I sent Sableye into his Pokeball (he didn't like it too much) and went ahead to Mockino.

The tourists were all buying their cheap souvenirs from the street venders, and I walked by without attracting too much attention. Although the street vendors were yelling at me assuming I was a tourist (one from Unova in particular, I'm not sure why he wanted to be so specific), I ignored them and left Mockino. The instant I did, I hid in a bush and put on all my normal clothes again, before sending Sableye out again and running down the route as fast as I could.

**This was as short as I could get it, so excuse the length. Chances are you heeded my warning at the beginning and decided to skip some of the exposition at the beginning, so you didn't have much to read. Otherwise, I can see why you'd be kind of bored and be asking where the action is. Don't worry, she's a-coming! **

**Keep in mind that this fanfiction is already pre-written (for the most part), so giving me OCs and plot ideas about the most currently uploaded chapter would be useless. At least updates will be soon, so that's a plus! I hope you enjoyed, and I implore you to join me next time, when Rei's constant snarky comments and all that won't be the only good thing about this fic! I mean, I hope that they come out snarky, I don't know if I'm really all that good at writing yet, so I'd need some opinions…**

**Anyway, goodbye, reader, may we meet again someday! Or today. Whenever, I suppose, would be great for me.**


	2. What You Expected and Scumbag Daven

**Welcome back! Glad that you're still sticking around and toughing it out until it gets interesting (at least, I hope you think it's interesting…). When we last left Rei, she threw a ton of exposition on us about Literoa before her boss, Yukio, told her to find a kid lost in the Scriptana Forest who was led there by a Mismagius. She knows that her enemy, Daven, is going to try and make her look bad by defeating her, though! I already know what happens here and what will happen in the later chapters, but I won't tell you! Go ahead and find out about this one yourself, though!**

I got through Verseti easily, not stopping to talk to Edric, before I reached the Scriptana Forest. Some Bug and Grass-type Pokemon were roaming around, but I mostly ignored them until I started to hear a young kid crying. "Hello?" I called, searching around until I finally found him. "Are you lost?" I asked, although I already knew that he was.

"Y-yes…" He rubbed his nose and looked up at me with glimmering eyes. "…Who are you?"

"My name's Rei," I answered. "Where do you live? I can take you home if you want."

"Tragetu City," he answered, tears rolling down his cheeks.

"Of course…" I thought. "Why isn't Daven getting in trouble for letting this kid get lost in the first place, again?" "Well, don't worry, little guy. I'll get you there safe and sound," I ensured him.

"A-alright," he sniffled, grabbing my hand as we continued down the path. Further down, I could see the path branching off to Tragetu.

"_If he was already this close to home, how is he lost?"_ I wondered warily, but I headed in the direction of the path anyway, and I wasn't surprised when every single one of the Pokemon on Daven's main team leaped out from the shadows. "Whoa! Those are Daven's Pokemon!" the little kid exclaimed, as Sableye jumped down from my shoulder and started to growl at the Weavile leading the pack.

"Weavile!" Daven's Pokemon growled, his claws turning purple and growing longer.

Sableye didn't look impressed, as he hissed, "Eye…" and his claw caught on fire, before he swung at Weavile. But right when Sableye was about to hit him, Weavile caught Sableye's Fire Punch, laughed scathingly, and shot a beam of ice from his mouth, sending Sableye flying backwards, but he caught himself on the ground.

"Sable…!" Sableye croaked defiantly, bringing his claws together as a ball of bright orange light grew in his hands, before he tossed it at Weavile, but Weavile slid out of the way and darted over to my confused Sableye and swiped him in the face once, knocking him over and causing him to faint. "Sableye!" I cried.

"That's Daven's Weavile! Awesome!" the kid exclaimed, running over to the Pokemon. Weavile chuckled and struck a pose, before shooting off another Ice Beam at a tree and freezing it. "Cool!" the kid said.

I growled, bringing out Iggle's Pokeball. "Go, Iggle!" I shouted, tossing the ball and sending out my Wigglytuff.

At first, Weavile looked shocked, before snickering. Iggle puffed up her cheeks defiantly. "Iggle, use Brick Break!" I ordered, as she aimed a punch at the Weavile.

"Dodge it, Weavile." Immediately, the Weavile jumped out of the way and punched at Iggle in return, knocking her over, but not KO'ing her quite yet, though she was close.

As I brought out a Hyper Potion from my bag and started to spray it on Iggle's wounds, Daven stepped out from where he was hiding behind a tree, having been hidden entirely by the shadows, smirking. "Hello, Rei. I see you've been expecting me this time."

"What's your problem, anyway?" I questioned furiously, accidentally spraying some of the Hyper Potion into Iggle's eye. Daven started to laugh meanly, but Iggle didn't seem hurt. I still muttered sorry to her, though.

Daven didn't answer my question, and said, "Well, then, shall you be attacking me again, or are you just going to give up now? I'd say giving up would be smarter."

After Iggle was fully revitalized, I said, "No, I'm going to keep fighting for as long as I can, and I'm finally going to show you that you can't just bully me all the time like you do!"

"Hm, feisty," he muttered, smiling. "Very well. Weavile, use Brick Break on this insolent child's Wigglytuff so we can see what else she has in store for us."

Weavile nodded, before trying to punch Iggle again. "Iggle, dodge it!" I cried, but Iggle couldn't get out of the way in time, and was slapped aside. I ran over to see if she was alright, but she had fainted. "Wig…" she murmured sadly.

I would explain what happened next, but by the way I'm avoiding it, I bet you can guess that happened. So anyway, after all my Pokemon had been slammed, Daven laughed. "You know, arrogance doesn't win Pokemon battles," he scoffed.

"And neither does being a pathetic jerk…!" I hissed. "And why do you always call me a kid and speak like an evil guy?"

Daven only smiled, that jerk. "That was soo cool!" the little kid shouted, running up to him. "I want to be just like you when I grow up, Uncle Daven!"

"_Uncle_ Daven?!" I growled. "I thought you may have sent him out as bait from the start!"

"He wasn't bait, what are you even talking about?" Daven said, trying to sound innocent. "He came out here to watch me battle you."

"Then why did you call Yukio and tell him that you saw a Mismagius leading him out here?" I asked, angry.

"If I didn't make the problem Ghost-related, you wouldn't have shown up," Daven answered simply, before looking to his nephew. "Now, come on, let's get you home. Yukio needs to hear that Rei failed to listen to what he had to say again."

As they walked away, I could feel myself getting really angry—more so than usual, I mean—before I shouted, "I bet the only reason you're not attacking me this time is so that you can keep tricking your nephew into liking you!"

Daven turned around. "Stay here," he ordered his nephew sternly, before coming back to me. "Well, then, if you insist, I guess I must," he said, shrugging as he sent out his Weavile. "So, then, Weavile, use whatever you feel like using. This was her idea, after all, not mine."

"What are you talking about?" I questioned as his Weavile started to advance towards me. "You're the one who always instigates the fights, not-!"

I got cut off when Weavile used some attack on me, I think it was Aerial Ace, and I fell over. My vision started to get all hazy, but the last thing I saw before I blacked out was Daven looking down at me. He mumbled something, smirking like usual, and sent his Weavile back into its Pokeball.

**Again, thank you for sticking around! I know how hard this beginning part is to read through—believe me, I try to avoid reading this part like the plague when I'm skimming over it to search for interesting parts—but It'll get better (hopefully!) Until next time, don't die and come back or else I'll be a saad Panda!**

…**Ugh, I even repulsed myself with that. Never again, I promise. Never, ever again.**


	3. Some Misplaced Spheres and LOTS of Ice

I woke up later, and heard my Xtransceiver ringing loudly. Confused, I sat up and answered it, aware I had all sorts of dead leaves in my hair and Weedle crawling around on my legs. "Yeah…?" I asked, not being conscious enough to realize who it was before he started to yell at me.

"Rei, where are you?" he questioned furiously. "And why do you look like such a mess?"

"I'm in the woods! I've been unconscious for almost two hours because Daven attacked me with his Pokemon!" I shouted. "The kid who was lost was his nephew, and he sent him out here just to bait me, and then he wiped out my entire team, and then he made his Weavile use Aerial Ace on me and I blacked out!"

"I really doubt that," Yukio growled. "Why would Daven do that kind of thing? He's a gym leader, not a ruffian."

"I don't know, you tell _me_!" I answered huffily. "Really, why would I just randomly decide to take a nap in the middle of the woods? You have to believe me; he couldn't make it any more obvious that he's out to get me!"

Yukio sighed angrily, facepalming. "I'll get Edric to bring get you back to Poemira with his Archeops, since you're obviously too incompetent to be able to get there yourself and you never have a Pokemon able to use Fly on hand, even though this kind of nonsense always happens to you."

"Yeah, it always happens because Daven always _makes_ it happen!" I continued to argue.

"Enough! Or do you want me to have you sent back to Kanto?" he threatened.

I growled, discouraged. "Yeah, okay."

"Make sure your Pokemon are ready." With that, he hung up on me.

"They're not ready, they're all _fainted_, you idiot," I muttered to myself as I searched for their Pokeballs lying around. However, I only found two of them. I didn't know which ones they were, so I released them to find out. Out of the balls came Sableye and Chandelure. They were both looking really weary, probably because they only had one point of health left.

"Oh, no…" I murmured. "What happened to the others?" As I searched around anxiously, I ignored that the Weedle that had been on my legs were Poison Stinging my ankles, and only realized that they were doing so once I got poisoned. "This is impossible!" I cried, kicking aside the Weedle and putting Sableye and Chandelure back into their Pokeballs. I accessed my Xtransceiver and called up Edric. "Where are you?" I demanded.

"Hey, I'm on my way, calm down," he said. I could tell he was walking down the road with his Archeops flying beside him. "What happened, anyway? Yukio said that you had fallen asleep in the forest and ignored what he said, but I don't think that sounds right."

"Because he's lying! Daven tricked me into coming here and attacked me with his Pokemon after wiping out my entire team, and then I blacked out, and now that I'm awake, I can only find two of my Pokemon! I got poisoned by a couple of Weedle, too, and worst of all, Yukio won't listen to a word I say!" I ranted.

"That's harsh," Edric said. "He doesn't even get on _my_ case that much."

"Yeah, but what do you expect from him, anyways?" I growled. "Get here right now, or I might faint again from the poison or something, and then I'll have no Pokemon at all."

I leaned against a tree for a few more minutes until Edric finally arrived with his Archeops. He greeted me with a high five (but I left him hanging), and said, "You said you were poisoned, right?"

I nodded, glaring down at my feet.

"Alright, here's a Pecha Berry." Edric reached into his pocket, and pulled out the aforementioned berry, handing it to me. I glanced at it, before popping it into my mouth and feeling rejuvenated; ordinarily I almost never eat berries, but this one tasted really good. Not as good as my favorite kind, Qualot, but it was still alright.

"Is that better?" he asked me. "Just say so if you still feel bad; I could try an Antidote or something."

"No, no, I'm fine," I answered hastily. "Do those even work on humans?"

"I've never tried," Edric said. "Hey, maybe I should catch one of the Weedle and have it use Poison Sting on you again to find out!"

"If you even try, I'll…!" I began, but after I remembered that all my Pokemon were either mysteriously gone or fainted, I stopped. Edric started to laugh, but I gave him a cold stare to tell him to knock it off.

"Hey, speaking of your Pokemon," Edric began, "do you want some of my Revives so you'll be alright if another Pokemon shows up?"

"No, keep them, I'll be fine," I insisted.

Edric shrugged. "Whatever you say," he said, before he patted his Archeops on the head and said, "Archeops, fly Rei to Poemira Town, alright, buddy?"

Archeops screeched in agreement, and I climbed onto his back. Immediately, Archeops took flight, barely weighed down by me. As I looked down below me, I remembered why I never use Fly on any Pokemon but Hisashi's Xatu. Xatu always stays pretty close to the ground and usually doesn't go very fast because it shares Hisashi's personality and likes to stay calm and orderly. Meanwhile, other Pokemon (notably Pidgeot—mach 2 speed?!) try to go as fast as possible as high in the air as they can go, and since I'm afraid of heights and I hate roller coasters, it's really anything but fun. In retrospect, Archeops was being generally tame compared to some of the other Pokemon I've flown on, but just looking down made me dizzy. However, I told myself to hold on tight and look ahead of me until we got home.

As I looked down unwillingly and noticed we were going over Biblini City. Even from that far up in the air, I could still make out that Yukio was standing up on the roof of his gym staring up at us. I glowered a little bit, and muttered to Archeops, "Hey, go a little faster."

Archeops cried out in agreement (almost like he saw Yukio looking up at him, too) and darted forward at a high enough speed that I had to cry out, "Stop! No! Slower, please!" But even then, Archeops didn't slow down at all, and even started to do odd maneuvers in the air. "What's going on?!" I demanded.

But just as I was about to close my eyes and clutch harder to Archeops, I noticed a rainbow-colored beam shoot by my head, nearly hitting Archeops. "Aurora Beam?! Is Yukio shooting at us?" I questioned, frightened; I knew that if Archeops was hit by one of these powerful-looking Aurora Beams, he'd drop like a stone, and I was certain that I probably couldn't survive a fall like that.

I looked behind me to where Biblini City was, but I could no longer see it. However, as another Aurora Beam came close to hitting Archeops again, I was sure that they were not coming from where Yukio was standing. _"Does he even know that I'm in serious trouble right now?" _

"Keep dodging those Aurora Beams!" I whispered frantically to Archeops, although he was already doing a pretty good job of it to begin with.

We kept flying for a while, avoiding the Aurora Beams, and we were over Poemira Town soon. "Land, Archeops!" I called, but Archeops didn't hear me and continued to fly and dodge the Aurora Beams. "LAND, ARCHEOPS!" I repeated much louder, sorry that I was yelling at him, as he went right over Poemira and headed towards Novelatta instead.

I was hoping he wouldn't fly any farther, because then we'd be over open ocean, and yes, while it would be good to fall into the ocean rather than crash through someone's roof, Archeops would sink to the very bottom and probably die—it happens, believe me, I've seen it before—and I would have to tread water for a while before I'd ever get to shore, and that's not even considering all the wild Sharpedo and Wailmer in the ocean.

Suddenly, an Ice Beam struck Archeops, and I screamed as Archeops fell like I had expected him to. While he swung around and continued flying, I was falling towards Novelatta quickly. I held my breath; if this was really going to happen, I may as well try to brace myself.

Just as I was about to hit the ground, I heard a Pokemon's cry near me, and I was caught in midair by some Pokemon I couldn't distinguish. "Here, sit up!" I heard someone shout to me, grabbing by shoulders and propping me up correctly on the Pokemon's back.

I turned to see who had rescued me from becoming a ghost myself, I couldn't believe my eyes. "Blue?!" I questioned incredulously.

**I shouldn't really bother asking any questions like, "Ooh, what's happening next, so excited, canon characters and stuff, whoa!" Like I said at the beginning, this is all prewritten, so I already have every idea of what's going to be happening for the next…say…fifteen chapters. At least. **

**That doesn't stop me from explaining why Blue is here, though, since I feel like this is appropriate. If you just want to leave now, no one's stopping you. But basically, I feel like Blue is the best rival, and since he's also a gym leader (which is mostly the reason why Rei knows who he is and why he's here to begin with, but you'll learn more about that later), it's just so perfect. My 'rival ratings' go like this; since Silver is actually a criminal and he's actually kind of a bad guy in the context of the story and not just to you, I feel like that gives you little reason to hate him in particular, just the things he does to piss you off. Then, Brendan and May are losers, I have to admit, even though I grew up with Gen. III and Wally is, too. Barry is kill-all annoying, not aggravating, and yeah, that gives you plenty of room to dislike him, but not in the kind of way where winning a long battle against him feels good because he was being like that beforehand. Cheren is a deeper character and he's a lot more developed, I admit, but that only makes me respect him more as a character, not hate him as a rival like I'm supposed to, and I just feel bad after beating him postgame. Bianca is—let's face the facts—a stupid pushover. N doesn't count because he's technically a part of the villain team and counting him would also technically count the Team Rocket/Galactic Executives because, going by that logic, if you fight them more than once over the course of the game and their Pokemon change from battle to battle, they're your rival. I've never played Black 2 or White 2, so I have no idea about Hugh, but from everything I've read up on him from various sources, he's just your run-of-the-mill rival, nothing special.**

**And a separate little listing of the Gen. VI rivals;**

**Calem/Serena: (S)he just wants to win so that (s)he'll be the strongest and is kind of like a copy-paste of undeveloped Cheren in that sense.**

**Shauna: Like Bianca, just a bit more charming (if only I'd seen the option to choose my own nickname, though!).**

**Trevor: Kind of like a nerdier version of Dawn/Lucas from Gen. IV, is all. The Pokedex makes his character.**

**Tierno: He's a joke character who's only there to…I don't even know, but it doesn't matter, he's nothing special.**

**But then there's Blue, the original, who you just felt so overjoyed to beat every single time he'd come onto screen and start teasing you. Unlike a lot of the newer rivals, he isn't your friend and he doesn't want to seem like he is. He's just a jerk, but in the kind of way that's good and helps the gameplay. Plus, beating him after he beats the champion and watching him get slack from Prof. Oak feels like a good conclusion, and don't you even try to tell me that you didn't feel a wave of nostalgia when you talked to Blue before fighting him as the final gym leader in Kanto in Gen. II and the remakes. **

**But yeah, I've been ranting on for a while; I just wanted to clear that up since I get made fun of a lot for putting Blue in there. **

**Anyway…**

**Why has Blue come to Literoa?**

**Who was shooting at Rei?**

**Where'd her Pokemon go to?**

**WHEN WILL I FINALLY GET TO THE POINT AND END THIS ALREADY?!**

**All of these questions will be answered by the next chapter (this I know) and one will be answered right now! So, come back next time to find out!**

…**Please?**


	4. New Horizons (ow) and Flying Paragraphs

Just as I was about to hit the ground, I heard a Pokemon's cry near me, and I was caught in midair by some Pokemon I couldn't distinguish. "Here, sit up!" I heard someone shout to me, grabbing by shoulders and propping me up correctly on the Pokemon's back.

I turned to see who had rescued me from becoming a ghost myself, I couldn't believe my eyes. "Blue?!" I questioned incredulously.

"The one and only," he gloated shortly, gesturing to himself as his Pidgeot landed safely in the center of Novelatta Town. "So, from what I've heard, you're Rei, right?"

"Uh-huh," I answered, still flabbergasted that Blue—the head gym leader in Kanto—was actually talking to me! _"He's the guy I've always wished I was like when I was a kid!" _I thought.

Blue got off of his Pidgeot's back, before grabbing my hand and letting me off, too, and returning his Pidgeot to his Pokeball. "What are you doing here? Don't you have, like, gym leader stuff to attend to?" I questioned amazedly. I had plenty more where that came from, but I didn't want to pester him too much.

"You know, since you're a gym leader, too, shouldn't you know better than to say 'gym leader stuff'?" He said, sounding mean, but I knew (or at least hoped) he was joking. "But anyway, this is the kind of gym leader stuff I need to do right now."

"You mean rescuing other gym leaders from random Aurora Beams?" I verified. "By the way, do you know who shot those, anyway?"

I know, I know, I should have asked that first, except this was _the_ Blue. The guy beat the champion and became a gym leader; how couldn't I look up to the guy? I was really nervous. Even though now I know he's a bit of a jerk (a bit? Try insane lots), I still have this weird 'is this really happening' feeling build up in my chest whenever he starts talking to me.

"Yeah, but that's not important, we've got other gym leader stuff to do right now." Blue disregarded my question. "Stop asking so many questions; I'll explain later. Right now, we need to get some items so we can get going back to Kanto. This place has got a Pokemart, right?"

"No," I answered. "The nearest one to here is in Lyrina, but everything there is really expensive." Blue gave me a stern yet amused look. "Not that you can't afford it, I'm sure you've got plenty of money…" I added tentatively.

"Yeah, maybe you're dirt-poor, but I've got lots of money, and as long as there's nothing to annoy us on the way there, it should be no prob, right?" Blue said, bringing out more money than I had ever seen in my entire life. I stared at it wide-eyed, and he snickered. "You're like a Meowth with a laser pointer," he added, smirking. I then realized how silly I looked, and stopped immediately, red-faced.

Self-conscious all of a sudden from the laser pointer comment, I looked around and saw that some of the children living in Novelatta had left their houses and were staring at us. My face only burned even redder, and Blue also seemed to notice that everyone was looking at us with awe, though he just scoffed. "Don't you usually get this kind of attention?"

I shook my head, before he nudged me somewhat strongly, and I faced him again. "Well, come on, you know where all this weird stuff is, so you have to take me there," he said, heading towards the exit to Novelatta Town.

"Oh! A-alright," I stammered, skittering over with him anxiously. He looked at me with a humored expression, before looking forward again.

However, just as we were about to leave, I felt someone tap me on the shoulder. I turned around, and saw a young girl who looked like she was just about a year younger than me (and since I'm tall for my age, four or five inches shorter), and a boy standing beside her who looked very similar. "Hey, a-are you Rei?" she asked shakily, her face turning almost as red as mine had earlier.

"No, of course she's not, stupid," the boy growled. "Why would she be _here_?"

"Poemira isn't that far from here, Vertico!" the girl hissed. "Stop being mean, you're embarrassing me!"

"Fine then, I'm going home," the boy named Vertico muttered, before walking away.

There was an awkward silence for a while, before the girl said, "Um… sorry about Vertico, he's a huge jerk."

"_Not as big as some of the jerks _I_ have to deal with…!"_ I thought, before I said, "No, it's alright. He's not your fault; just your mom's."

The girl paused with a slight, anxious smile, before continuing, "So…ARE you the real Rei? You know, the gym leader in Poemira Town?"

I nodded. "Yeah," I answered. "So, what's your name?"

"I'm Horizon," the young girl introduced. "My brother said you weren't real, but now I can go brag that you are!"

"Uh-huh," I said, smiling. "And since I know the importance of bragging to people that didn't believe you that you were right all along, do you want me to give you an autograph or something?"

Horizon gasped. "No way, that'd be awesome! Wait here, I have a badge case in my room!" And with that, my young little fan sprinted back to her house.

After a few seconds passed, Blue asked, "Why are you being so nice so her, anyway? She's just some random kid."

"Why not? I mean, it doesn't hurt having fans, does it?" I answered.

"Nah, but just wait until you get more. They just get more and more annoying," Blue groaned. "And just wait until you see the kind of pictures they'll draw of you; you'll start to wish you were never born with how stupid some of them look…"

I would have glared at him and started to argue, had it been anyone else I know, but instead I just stared at my feet. "Well, a promise is a promise. And who knows? Right now she might be just some random kid, but someday she might be the champion or something."

Blue didn't say anything, and I was too afraid to look to see his expression before Horizon came running back with a lime green badge case, which had indents for all the badges in Literoa to be placed. As she handed it to me with a permanent marker, I started to recall that I don't actually have a set-in-stone signature for myself, since usually people don't care that I'm a gym leader (other than the guys in Mockino, but no one appeals to those wildebeests). But I tried my best to make it look as big and fancy as some of the more famous signatures out there, and it ended up looking pretty good. I even added my Xtransceiver number just because.

Once I handed it back to Horizon, she nodded happily and said, "Thank you so much! Someday, I'm going to travel around Literoa and become the champion, just like Orlagh!"

I smiled widely. "I'll look forward to challenging you in my gym, Horizon. It'll be really interesting to see what kind of Pokemon you'll have," I said. "Well, we have to go now, so if you want to see me, well…" I trailed off, both because I remembered about the barrier keeping certain people out of Poemira and because Blue elbowed me in the ribs and muttered for me to hurry up. "Well, whatever. Call me later!" I finished, before I walked out of Novelatta Town and got onto the route leading to Lyrina.

"That was really pointless," Blue muttered indignantly as I treaded through the grass and nudged past some people who were walking around with him following behind me. "Plenty of kids want to be the champion, so why does she think she's so special?"

I wanted to say that the same could be said about him, but I guess my astonishment over him even being behind me made me hold my tongue. "Well, since you don't live here, you wouldn't know that hardly any people born in Literoa become trainers," I answered instead. "Most of them are lame breeders and those kinds of people that do contests. That's the main reason why I almost never have challengers in my gym and everyone in the League here is imported from other regions."

"I already knew that," Blue scoffed. "Still, being the only trainer in her town doesn't make her hot stuff. I doubt she even _has_ a Pokemon yet."

I didn't say anything, but it was alright since Lyrina Town was very fast approaching in front of us. "Well, there it is," I said, keeping myself from doing a flamboyant gesture towards the town in fear that he might start to get on my case about it. "The department store is in the very center, but I guess you won't need any help getting there."

"Nope. All you'll have to do is stay close and, for Pete's sake, don't appeal to the fandom anymore," Blue ordered. "C'mon; the others are expecting us."

"You mean the other gym leaders?" I questioned, surprised.

"Duh." By this point, I was already lagging behind Blue as he entered the department store and looked at the level chart by the elevator.

"So, what do we need to get, anyway?" I asked tentatively, trying to look over his shoulder but finding I wasn't tall enough.

"Full Restores, some Revives, and most importantly, Ice Heals," Blue answered, before he pressed a button on the elevator. "That's what I think we'll need."

When Blue mentioned Revives, that's when I remembered that the two Pokemon I still had with me were both fainted. "Whoa, that reminds me! Both of my Pokemon have fainted, and I still haven't gotten them healed!" I exclaimed, panicked. "I have time to go heal them up, right?"

"Yeah," Blue answered plainly. "Aren't you supposed to be, you know, more professional than forgetting you have no usable Pokemon? You're a gym leader."

I could feel my face getting redder and redder as I quickly scurried out of the department store and over to the Pokemon Center. "Nurse Joy, can you heal my Pokemon?" I asked once I approached the woman there.

"Why yes, of course I can," Nurse Joy said, taking Sableye and Chandelure's Pokeballs and putting them in her healing machine. A few seconds later, she returned them to me. "So, excuse me for being nosy, but what happened? Don't you ordinarily have a lot more Pokemon on your team?" she asked as I headed for the door.

"Believe me, it's a long story you really don't want to hear," I warned her, before sprinting back to the department store. However, on my way, I smacked into Blue, and we both fell over.

"Gah! Watch where you're going! If I didn't know any better, I'd think you were trying to rob me or something!" Blue shouted, standing up and brushing dirt off of his pants.

I stood up, as well, my face hung low. "I'm sorry…" I muttered embarrassedly. "I just didn't want to make you wait for too long."

"Well, now we've got to waste time with this nonsense," Blue sneered. "But whatever, we have all the supplies we'll need for our trip to Kanto."

"And you'll explain everything on the way there," I verified, "right?"

"Uh-huh, sure," Blue said hastily, grabbing his Pidgeot's Pokeball and releasing him. "Now, hurry up, we don't have any time to waste, so don't be slow!" he said in a more ordering tone as he climbed onto Pidgeot's back and gestured for me to do the same. I fastwalked over to his Pokemon immediately and climbed onto his back, at which point Blue said, "Pidgeot, Fly to Viridian City; if any Aurora Beams or Ice Beams start shooting at you, just try your best to avoid 'em, alright?"

Pidgeot nodded his head in agreement, and with a very quick takeoff, we were in the air, flying faster than I had ever gone in my entire life. I had to try very hard to not grab Blue's clothes for support, and I wondered how he could possibly be completely okay with flying this fast. Against my common sense, I looked down and saw the stretch of ocean. It took me a while to gather breath, but when I did, I asked, "So, why are you taking me to Kanto, anyway?"

"Well, to put this simply lots of bad stuff is happening everywhere, especially here, but since you got four of your Pokemon stolen and you almost died falling off that Archeops, you know that already," Blue explained. "Well, most of that stuff is happening to everyone else in all the regions, too; Pokemon are being stolen from trainers, any Pokemon that tries to Fly gets shot at with Ice-type attacks, trying to Surf sucks you into the ocean, and some gym leaders are getting kidnapped. So, all the gym leaders in the other regions that believed this was actually going on agreed that since Literoa is the most in danger, we'd try to get the gym leaders in one place so they'd all be safer. We're going to my gym, to be exact."

"Who's doing all of this, though? Shouldn't someone be trying to stop them?" I asked.

"We don't know what they're calling themselves, but we've found some of their headquarters and tried to take them down, but mostly it just ends up losing us more trainers from the leagues, so it's dangerous," Blue continued. "So far, we've lost contact with Lance, Clair, Whitney, Liza, Gardenia, Volkner, and Skyla. Not to mention, a majority of us have lost at least one Pokemon."

"That does sound really bad," I said. I knew I was being Captain Obvious, but I couldn't think of anything else to say since I only recognized three of those people's names, and only knew exactly who one of them was without just hearing their names thrown around. "We're going to Viridian City, right?"

"I already said that, weren't you listening?" Blue questioned. "Or is it that you don't remember where my gym is or something?"

"No, I remembered, but I just wanted to make sure," I muttered. "Jeez Louise, it's not like conquered Kanto a week ago or something; of course I'm not going to remember all of that right away." I looked down, and saw we were still over the ocean. However, just as I felt like it would all be alright, Aurora Beams and Ice Beams started to shoot from the ocean below again, and Pidgeot was doing really complex tactics to avoid them. "Good job, Pidgeot, just keep going! I think I can see Mt. Silver in the distance!" Blue shouted, patting his Pidgeot's head as his Pokemon did a barrel roll to avoid another barrage of rays. I almost started to cry, because his flying was really starting to get hectic now. I looked forward, though, and I, too, saw the outline of Mt. Silver in the distance, though it was really far away.

I looked down again, and peered into the ocean, trying to make out what Pokemon were shooting the beams, and noticed multiple Dewgong swimming after us at absurd speeds, each with a trainer on its back. I wanted to tell the trainers to stop, but then I noticed that they were all wearing odd outfits I had only previously heard of. I know this is going to sound stupid, but I could swear the people riding the Dewgong were wearing Team Magma, Galactic, and Plasma outfits, each of them wearing one of the three. _"No way! All three of those groups disbanded; why are they chasing us?!" I_ thought.

"Oh, so you've noticed what we're dealing with," Blue said, looking behind him and seeing what I was seeing. "Yeah, we don't know how or why, but apparently the groups that were terrorizing the different regions a few years ago have gotten back together and formed an alliance. I know it sounds stupid, but believe me; it's anything but a picnic for us. All of them still have the goals they used to have, but now they're just trying it all at once on all of the regions, and it's getting really hard for us to handle. From what Lance and Clair told us before they disappeared, Rocket and Snagem are responsible for all the Pokemon kidnappings, Aqua are the ones making trainers disappear in the ocean, Magma's the one shooting at us with Ice-type attacks, and Galactic and Plasma are helping those groups with whatever else."

I paused. "Well, that must have been a mouthful."

"You think?" Blue questioned sarcastically, before his Pidgeot did another twirl in mid-air and got cut off. "Okay, land now, Pidgeot!" he ordered his Pokemon. Looking down, I could somewhat make out the radio tower in Lavender Town.

Pidgeot cried out, before swooping downward at such a fast speed that I squeezed my eyes shut and hoped for the best. I mean, I knew that Blue wasn't going to crash into anything; he's not me, after all, he's flown a million times before, so why would he screw up now, but being safe never hurts. A minute or two later, I opened my eyes when I felt it was safe, and saw that we had landed in front of the Viridian City gym. After we got off of his Pidgeot, Blue returned him to his Pokeball and went inside, gesturing behind his back for me to follow him. Why wouldn't I?

**Be thankful; I almost cut it off right before Pidgeot flew with them to Viridian.**

**But anyway, I'm really happy that I'm actually getting reviews for once! I can't tell you how many times I've written equally-as-long fanfics on my alternate account and hadn't even gotten a single review, but now people are saying that they actually like this! I couldn't be happier! Maybe someday, if you all think it's really, REALLY good, it'll get its own TvTropes page! That would be the day… (drifting off far into my imagination, trying to picture this, I feel kind of overbearing on the readers, telling them somewhat forcefully to gain more popularity and asking them for a TvTropes page I don't deserve yet like a sixteen-year –old girl would ask her father for a Corvette, but for some reason…I feel like they won't fail me this time like the others did so many times in the past. Not these fans, I tell myself, smiling. These ones will never desert me like-)**

**What…? What? Oh, hey, what's that, up there, is that a mini-roleplay that I just did there? Whoa, oops, I never do that in front of other people. Sorry. But still, I trust you all to try and stay loyal and be the best (or just be exceptional; no, you know what, I'd take a participation ribbon, even) fanbase you can. I mean, no, I'm not asking for a TvTropes page. Not right now. That'd be rude. We'd clutter it up with a fic that's barely reached its fifth chapter, much less its climax or finale chapter…**

**Although I do always dream of having one someday…**

**NO.**

**I WILL STOP NOW AND CEASE TO CONTINUE TRYING TO FORCE YOU TO DO ANYTHING BY MAKING YOU FEEL BAD BECAUSE THAT'S HORRIBLE AND I DO IT ALL THE TIME AND I HATE IT BUT I CAN'T HELP IT EVEN THOUGH YES, I DREAM OF BEING ON TVTROPES BECAUSE I AM A TVTROPES ADDICT ALL THE WAY EVEN THOUGH I'M NOWHERE COOL ENOUGH TO HAVE ANYTHING ON THERE MUCH LESS AN ACCOUNT AND I'VE NEVER EVEN EDITED ON IT ONCE. **

**I think pretty much every word of that past 'time' was a run-on, but I guess that's meant to be the joke…? But anyway, sincerest apologies for that ridiculousness that I just broke into, it'll never happen again, I promise.**

**What do the other gym leaders think of Rei? I can't think of any more questions than that. Until next time, you'll just have to try and guess, I suppose. **


	5. My First Sin and Tons of Rekindled Stuff

**Okay, this is going to be the introduction to something new I'll be doing to the story from here on; whenever I introduce I character whose personality I changed for whatever reason, I'll explain said reason at the beginning (unless it's a spoiler), tell you in advance what their 'new' personality is, and tell you my opinion about the real character so you won't kill me if I change a fangirl-favorite character for the worse. I only hate a few Pokemon characters, and you'll know if I do because they won't be in the story at all. If you don't care about these random changes, you can skip down if you see a bold paragraph beginning the page. **

**Character:** **Cheren (B2W2)**

**New Personality:**** He's a bit of a sour jerk now, but he's got his intentions at heart…not that I'll tell you those right now, that'd be a spoiler.**

**Why I Changed It:**** My sister is a raving Cheren fangirl, but she only likes the 'original' Cheren from Black and White. She can't stand 'new' Cheren, AKA the one I'm more or less forced to depict here to make canon make sense. She'd kill me if he was likeable at all in this fic, not that she's got complete control, but she's my best friend, so she's got some influence. (By the way, prepare to hear about her more often. She's at least half-responsible for pretty much all of these alternate depictions).**

**My Opinion of the Original:**** While I call bullcrap on his anime counterpart for getting shocked by a Shinx and not so much as flinching without any reason why this is (he's a Normal-type trainer, not and Electric-type!), technically tweaking canon to make himself older than Bianca (Bianca was introduced near the beginning of the BW anime as being (presumably, since she was this age in the manga) 14. Over the course of the anime, she didn't physically change or transform into her B2W2 form, getting caught in a 'floating timeline'. Cheren was introduced later as being sixteen, the same age as he was in B2W2. All things considered, the anime lied and said that Cheren was two years older than Bianca when they're meant to be the same age!), and being voiced by 'notorious' anime voice actor Todd Haberkorn, I really love the development of his (true) game self. The development he goes through over the course of the adventure is quite interesting, and he nearly made me cry in the post-game when I found him on Route 5 and he gave that speech about strength. And then I learned that he thanks you for beating him in rematches, and I just felt like such a jerk after that for beating him all those times in the past when I should have just let him run off and do his own little thing instead of embarrassing him that many times. I mean, yeah, he learned, but still. Anyway, I like the original character's realism a lot, but keeping it in this story would both get me beheaded and give me writer's block again, so I had to make him into an insufferable douche. My sincerest condolences for this selfish decision, but it had to be done.**

Inside the gym, it looked like one of those conventions people flock to and dress up as weird stuff for…not that_ I_ would know what those are like, though. Anyway, there were gym leaders pretty much everywhere, and I hardly saw anyone I recognized, other than the Kanto ones that were there and a two or three of the Johto ones. Otherwise, I had a room full of strangers staring at Blue and me. In fact, I wasn't too sure whether he knew all of these people, either; it must be really hard work being an important gym leader—I could _never_ remember that many names without a cheat sheet!

It was silent for a bit longer, before one of the Kanto gym leaders— who I recognized immediately to be Sabrina from Saffron City—came up to us, nodding a greeting to Blue. "So, you're Rei, the Ghost-type specialist?" she asked me, her eyes looking more sharp than I had expected.

"Yes," I answered, trying not to sound too uncomfortable when I said it.

Sabrina nodded. "Yes, I can tell. You grew up in Lavender Town, am I correct?"

Her questions were only getting more and more awkward to answer. "Y-yes," I repeated, shuffling my feet.

"I knew you'd be shy," Sabrina muttered, turning her gaze away from everyone's and looking to a wall instead. "Then, as for your Mismagius, Wigglytuff, Gengar, and Dusknoir, we'll locate them all in due time. For now, though, I feel that your Sableye and Chandelure should be just barely enough to keep you from getting captured." She looked back to me again, and it might of just been my paranoia, but I swear her eyes had started to glow a little bit. "However, don't think for a second that what I'm saying means that you can just take it easy and expect us to babysit you with our Pokemon. Not only do we have our own things to worry about at the moment, but the future can always change without me expecting it, so just because right now I can see you being safe, that could simply be me deluding myself with my hopes again."

"In short," Blue started, nudging me so I'd face him, "don't bother us and keep on your toes, or else if you get attacked, we might not help you out. You got that?"

I nodded, but I was somewhat peeved that they were treating me like a little kid, telling me not to meddle with their affairs and to be careful… I'm a gym leader, too! Why aren't they respecting my abilities? They do know I could have probably curbstomped over half of everyone in the room if I had all of my Pokemon… Heck, some of their challenging Pokemon haven't even evolved _once_ yet! Just because the regions they're gym leaders in are more renown than mine doesn't make me a bad leader. But even still, I decided not to be mad, since they did save me from splattering all over the ground in Novelatta, so I guess if they didn't try to help, I'd be living in the Cave of Souls with all my friends, so you know.

"Hey, you need to tell us how you managed to find her so fast without a map, Blue!" a gym leader I didn't recognize called out. "I mean, yeah, your Pidgeot's fast, but you didn't even take a map! You shouldn't have even known where she was! Winona's still out getting that Psychic kid, and she has a map!"

"What, you didn't trust that I would do my job correctly?" Blue challenged. "Anyway, it was really easy, since I was flying above this small town in Literoa looking for her, and I saw her fall off an Archeops and almost die, so I swooped in and saved her the last moment. Pretty slick, huh?"

Everyone paused, taking this news in. "If you had been there a second later, there'd be nothing left to save…" someone muttered scathingly. "Maybe next time you should bring a map instead of going in headfirst and _guessing_ where they're at."

"Oh, who asked you…?" Blue growled, scowling. For a few minutes, everyone just exchanged awkward looks in complete silence.

Eventually, someone spoke up, stepping out from the crowd. After staring for a little bit, I recognized that it was Brock, the Pewter City gym leader, and he said, "Well, let's be glad Blue got there in time and that Rei's safe. Now we just have to wait for everyone else to get back."

"_If_ they get back, you mean…" the same person who had insulted Blue earlier growled. "This is a really stupid idea; I've done the research, and there's no way we'll be able to keep them from being discovered with such obvious rescues and predictable hiding places. Bringing them home is what they'll expect—believe me, I've dealt with a villain team before, and I know what they're thinking."

"Hey, nobody asked you for your comment, Cheren, so you can just can it for now!" Blue shouted. "Seriously, the only thing you've done since we came up with this plan is complain; what's your problem?"

"Yes, no need to get so heated up," Sabrina added. I could see the person they were arguing with step out from the congregation of gym leaders in order to argue better. "From what I can see, it'll work out fine."

"Maybe that's what you see, but I've been contemplating all the possible results of this mission, and I'm finding more cons than pros!" The man-err, boy? He looked much bigger than what his personality said his age was, and his appearance didn't really fit too much for him; perhaps at one time he looked better?—argued. "And didn't you say earlier, Sabrina, that you can always read the future incorrectly? Well, how can you know that's not going to happen now? "

"You may be right, but sometimes we just need to take risks for the greater good," another gym leader I didn't recognize said.

"Oh, so now suddenly the 'greater good' means 'getting us all taken hostage and having all our Pokemon taken from us'?" Cheren retorted. "Sabrina, you were wrong about Lance and Clair's mission, and then, you didn't even bother checking the future when you all had the dumb idea that safety's in numbers! Well, it's not; not if you don't have a guard, that is!"

"Calm down, Cheren!" some weird guy/chick/thing with a miner's helmet ordered. "Nobody likes annoying people."

"Oh, whatever, Roark, what are you good for, anyway?" Cheren continued.

I would have said something before this Sharon guy started to yell at everyone, but then he, well, started to yell at everyone so I decided not to. However, he stopped being on edge when the door to the gym opened again, and everyone turned around and saw a magenta-haired guy who looked all dirty standing in the door with someone I would have killed to never see again. Of course, it was Daven. In fact, he looked just as surprised to see me as I did him at first, until he start to laugh at me for being shocked. "And why _wouldn't _I be here, Rei?" he questioned sarcastically. I would have shouted something obscenely rude, but half of everyone in the room was already anticipating for me to make a comeback, so I just ignored him. He scoffed and started to chuckle again, but I was already facing the other direction, although having my back turned to him felt very unsafe.

"So, then. You're Daven of Celestic Town, correct?" Sabrina asked him just as she had asked me earlier.

"Yes," he answered, seeming more confident around Sabrina than me—I guessed it was because he didn't know who she was, but I don't know for sure.

She was silent for a bit longer, and everyone stared at Daven, although I didn't really mind him much; sure, he was giving me a dirty look, but I'm pretty sure the only reason the others were looking at him the way they were was because they knew like I did that he at least looked evil. Saying he was, though, is a different story, but I'd still be willing to bet, and I'm sure by the end of my story, so will you. A few extra dollars from your friends never hurts, after all, especially when you know for a fact that you're going to win, and the only reason your friend is even betting against you is because they have no idea what you're talking about. Finally, after I ignored him for a while, Sabrina said, "Not a very kind, smart, or rule-abiding person, are you?"

Daven looked taken aback. "What makes you say that?!" he questioned. I couldn't tell very well whether he was enraged or startled, but I'm pretty sure he must have been an even mix of both. Me being who I am, I smirked a little bit, and ignored him when he shot an aggressive glare back at me.

Sabrina blinked. "Just because I wasn't there to see it doesn't mean I don't have knowledge of it. Although you thought you could get away unpunished for attacking trainers time and time again since no one was there that could prove you did it, I foresaw these attacks nearly six months before they started to happen. The only reason I didn't do anything is because you were far from being under my control, being in an entirely different region, but don't think that won't catch up to you."

"So what? Why does it matter that you know about that? You'd be in trouble if you sent me out, and you know it," Daven sneered. "So, even if you don't like my tactics to get ahead of the pack and gain the victories I deserve, you'll all have to deal with it."

"I never said we couldn't," Sabrina noted. "Besides, we weren't planning on judging you for it. We just implore you to stop, although from what I can gather, this won't do you any good. In fact, after this, you might just get worse."

And oh man, did he ever.

But that's for a different time, specifically the end of the story. And since I just got to the important part, it'll be a while until I touch up on him trying to kill me for the umpteenth time, but actually coming darn near close to actually doing it.

But anyway, Daven looked outraged, but still tired to act calm. Considering even the best of actors can almost never hide the rage of something that happened backstage, you can guess how well this went for him, even with him being such the deceiving actor that he is. "Okay, then. Fine. But just know, if any one of you chose to antagonize me so unfairly like you're doing now, I'll wipe the floor with you."

"Yeah, whatever, big guy, quit being so uppity," Blue said. "If you think you could beat more than maybe four or five of the trainers in here, then you're mistaken. If we all had every Pokemon on our team right now and we weren't already tired, we'd be capable of more than you're giving us credit for. The weak teams we use for up-and-comers are far from our best Pokemon."

"Whatever you say, kid," Daven said, shrugging. "The Pokemon on my real team are more powerful than my challenging team, too, so you might just be climbing on the lower high horse here."

"I think you and I both know that at most, you're only two or three years older than I am, guy," Blue sneered. "Besides, just because I'm a bit younger, doesn't mean my Pokemon are, too."

This time, Daven didn't respond, even though pretty much everyone in the room was now at least half-angered with him.

Sabrina turned to me again. "So then, how often does he have your Pokemon attack you after you've already lost?"

"First of all, the only reason he wins is because he cheats," I started, "but anyway, just about every time he beats me, he'll have his Weavile attack me so he can run off and brag about it without me tripping him on the way there."

Daven scoffed. "Such lies. I never do that."

Sabrina narrowed her eyes at him. "It'd be best if you just told the truth," she growled. "You could mortally wound or even kill someone by attacking them, especially with such a powerful Pokemon such as Weavile. I'd think a gym leader like you would know better than to do that."

I gave him a mocking glare."Yeah, Daven, you should know better," I said.

He glared at me disgustedly. "You're so immature," he sneered.

"You're the one talking!" I growled.

"Stop fighting, already, you're both acting like little kids!" Cheren hissed at us from the crowd of gym leaders. "Not even my childhood friends and I bickered that much…!"

"Fine," I muttered.

"She started it," Daven insisted, but I ignored him so I wouldn't have that hotheaded nerd get on my case again.

We weren't talked to again for a bit, until Sabrina started asking questions to Daven again. "Have you lost any of your Pokemon?"

"No, why should've I? Are they being stolen?" Daven asked, confused. I wasn't sure if I trusted him or not, but since the other gym leaders let him slide, I decided that I would for once, as well.

"Yes, they are. I'm surprised you haven't realized yet," Sabrina responded. "I had predicted that you would notice before we took you here."

"No, I had no idea about that," Daven said. After starting to listen to him more clearly, I could have sworn I heard a lie in his voice somewhere… "Has anyone important lost any Pokemon?"

Sabrina looked to me with an expression that said to me that she wouldn't mention my situation, before she replied to Daven. "Yes, in fact, nearly everyone here has lost at least one main member of their team. Not to mention, some of us have gone missing with all of our Pokemon on hand, and neither the trainer nor their Pokemon have returned or given us any updates on their condition so far. And from what I can gather after considering many things, I can foretell that many more will be lost before this is all over, and we may not get some of them back."

"Oh, that's not good," Daven muttered, an austere look across his face. "Well, I'm happy to say all my Pokemon are perfectly intact. There's not a single mark on any of them." He glanced at me with a somewhat knowing look, and I pretended to look confused and turned away.

"That's great," Sabrina said, nodding. "Well, I suppose we'll just have to wait for more updates until-."

Suddenly, the Xtransceiver on Sabrina's wrist started to alert her, and the crowd of gym leaders (Daven and I included) swarmed around Sabrina to hear what the message was.

On the Xtransceiver screen, there was a distressed girl who looked like a Flying-type gym leader I remembered hearing about some time when I visited Hoenn on vacation a few years ago. Even though I can't remember her name, I guess it didn't really matter, since the news was more important than that. "Sabrina! Oh, thank goodness, you're there!" she sighed, yet she still looked distressed.

"What is it, Winona?" Sabrina questioned sternly, but I could still feel from the fiery, tense aura around her that she was more worried than angry. If only Yukio was the same way, I thought to myself snidely, before reminding myself that this was absolutely no time for jokes and listening up again.

"Sabrina, it's terrible!" Winona seemed extremely panicked, and she was all wet. In fact, I'm pretty sure her Xtransceiver was starting to glitch up. "Altaria got hit with a nasty Ice Beam! We fell into the water, and I think she sank under, and I can't find her! Not only that, but that Psychic-type trainer I was escorting to Viridian City disappeared, and I can't find him, either!"

"Oh, that is bad," Sabrina said, trying to contain her shock. "Try to get to land, or else you'll get sucked underwater. It doesn't matter how small the landform may be, but it's imperative that you get out of the water somehow. You have other Pokemon with Fly, right?"

"Yes, but if this water gets on their wings, they won't be able to Fly properly!" Winona explained with great trepidation. "And then they'll sink like Altaria, and like I said, Hisashi's nowhere to be found!"

"Calm down, Winona!" Sabrina snapped. "Is there land around you?"

"No, just ocean as far the eye can see," Winona said. "A-and I can hear the Dewgong closing in, and I can kind of feel my legs getting pulled…!"

Sabrina paused for a bit, listening tersely to Winona's surroundings, before she concluded, "Okay, Winona, after looking into it, I believe there's a high chance that you're about to be taken right now, although like Cheren keeps implying over and over again, I might be wrong."

"What?!" Winona questioned incredulously. "You're not even going to try and help anymore?"

"Listen," Sabrina implored. "From what I can see, Hisashi is fine, although I'm not sure where he is. All you need to do is hold your breath and keep a tight hold on all of your Pokeballs. Make sure you don't lose any of them."

Winona still looked shocked, and I thought I could see tears streaming down her face, but she nodded. "Alright, then, I've got them all accounted for," she ensured. "Except Altaria…"

"Altaria is fine, just hold your breath for now," Sabrina instructed. "Within the next few minutes, you'll be pulled underwater, and it wouldn't be wise to try and breathe down there, although that should be obvious."

Instead of responding, Winona held her breath, and a few seconds later, the Xtransceiver message got corrupted and ended.

"Is her Altaria really okay?" One of the gym leaders asked.

Sabrina turned around, and grimly shook her head. "Although I can't see it and know for sure, I'm fairly certain that an Ice Beam from one of those Dewgong probably at least badly injured Altaria, and being submerged into the water might have even…" Her voice trailed off as she started blankly at a wall, and although she didn't pick up what she was saying, everyone could guess what she meant to say.

…

…**..**

**What? Did you expect something like, "Oh, another bird bites the dust, hahaha!" Well, too bad, I'm not a Pok-Sadist, alright? I think I love them more than N does.**

**The only difference is that I don't try to—**

**Never mind, there's only a few people in the entire world who would laugh at that kind of joke, and only one person who knows what I was just about to type there. No, I bail. I don't need to have soccermoms up in my grill. **

**Well, I hope my Cheren tweaking wasn't too much…I hate having to do this, but like I said, my sister would be PISSED if I made 'New Cheren' into a likeable character, so it's either write like I don't know what I'm doing or what canon is or get beheaded. I think I know the obvious choice.**

**What will Daven do in the future which will almost kill Rei?**

**What happened to Hisashi?**

**Is Winona alive?**

**IS WINONA'S ALTARIA ALIVE?! BECAUSE THAT'RE MORE IMPORTANT. (just kidding and stuff)**

**But anyway, I'm pretty sure only one of those questions is going to be answered next time. Literally, I don't even think I know the answers to the other ones yet. **

**Until next time, my innermost happiness and wishes are being lent to you!**

…**What, what? I need those feelings and genie wishes, give those back! They're mine, so back off. You heard me, shoo, LEAVE! Go to the next chapter if it's uploaded, just don't stay here!**


	6. Thievery, Updates, and Extreme Calmness

"Poor Winona…" One of the other Hoenn leaders muttered sadly.

"Well, I don't mean to sound like a jerk or anything," Cheren growled, arms crossed, "but I TOLD you so…!"

"Maybe so, but if it's you that's next to disappear, I'll be the one uttering the ill-timed remarks about it," Sabrina sneered.

"Well, shouldn't _you_ be the one to know who's next? There's no 'if I'm next's then! I mean, if we're all going to get kidnapped by these thugs eventually because of your poor planning and you know what order we'll go in, don't you think it would be wise to tell us what order that is?" Cheren shouted.

"No, because doing that would only be even more unwise, Cheren!" Sabrina growled. "If everyone here knew the order of our disappearances like I do, then we would all be paranoid waiting for the next person to disappear like we know they will!"

"We're already paranoid enough as it is!" Cheren countered furiously. "Telling us the order would ease that, and let us take special precautions to make sure the next person won't disappear! Or is your prediction false again?"

I think it goes without saying that I knew fighting pretty well, and I could tell that this fight between this 'Cheren' guy and Sabrina was only going to drag on unless someone butted in, so I figured since I technically have an advantage over both of them that I might as well try to help, and any violence would be quenched because my type is effective against theirs'. "You know what? Who cares about the order, Cheren? I don't care about the order! Personally, I think that we just need to do what we have to do when we have to do it without being worried about who's going to be next! If we play our cards well enough, then maybe nobody else will disappear before this is all over, and the others will be fine!"

"I'm glad to know that you're taking my side, Rei," Sabrina began, "but from what I can see, even if we come up with a good strategy, a large number of us will be missing by the end of this. So then, going in headfirst and adamantly will only lose us more people, as Clair and Lance taught us, and staying cooped up here and not doing anything will probably result in an ambush in which they'll most likely collect all of us, and even if it doesn't, without our interference the entire situation will escalade to the point where not even the strongest trainers will be safe."

I nodded, but I was still defiant enough to keep fighting. This is going to sound super lame, but that's just how we do it in Lavender Town. Back down, and you get dragged into Pokemon Tower to play with the freaky stuff in there (and not the kind of freaky I like). "I understand, but I think the best plan would just be to keep doing what we're doing. How many trainers do you lose every week?"

"About three," Sabrina responded. "And one of us loses a Pokemon at least once every other day."

"Okay, but I think changing that would bring results we don't know the statistics for, so it'd be best just to stick to this, right? Not that it's the safest plan out there, it's just the safest plan we know of right now. Right?" I continued.

"And why should we take _your_ ideas around here?" Cheren asked pompously. "We had to save you from your region, and you only have two Pokemon. If I had to vote for who the weakest link here was, I'd definitely say it's you."

I paused for a bit. "Okay, seriously, man, I don't know who the hell you are, but I'm seriously about to throw you into the dumpster outside, no joke," I said, glaring.

Everyone snickered at least a little bit, while Cheren just glowered, although I could see a smile growing on his face (I can't blame him—I'd laugh at that kind of thing, too).

"Well, anyway, I think she's right," Sabrina said, breaking the awkward thing we had going on. "Although I can see the future being grim for us, changing our plan may only make matters worse, if you understand what I am saying here."

All the gym leaders exchanged looks, and eventually most of them muttered their approval, although some of them sounded unsure about this plan. "So, do you need me to do anything important like the rest of you?" I asked Blue (don't ask why I asked him; I guess I figured he'd give me an answer I'd understand better than Sabrina's) after the gym leaders and other guys had all spread out and started doing different things.

"Pfft, no," Blue scoffed, messing around with an Xtransceiver—even though I guessed it was his, I didn't know for sure. "Why do you think we had to _rescue_ you? Basically you're only here so we don't lose your kinda strong Pokemon to those bad guys."

"So basically, you're saying that if my Pokemon weren't as strong they are right now, you wouldn't have bothered saving me from dying?" I questioned, starting to get a little miffed.

"Yeah, pretty much," Blue said, before the Xtransceiver he was screwing around with zapped him a bit, and he withdrew his hand as the Xtransceiver started to smoke. He looked at me for a fleeting second, before smirking. "Hey, I know what you can do," he started.

"What?"

"Go throw this away for me, would you?" He pushed the Xtransceiver into my hands, and pointed across the room. "The trash can is over there."

I growled a bit, but I figured fighting against him would be kind of stupid since I already knew he was the master of obnoxious fighting. I glared at him for a moment or two, before stomping off to the trash can and dumping the Xtransceiver. I really, really wanted to go back to him and ask, "Anything else, Your Majesty?" in a funny, sarcastic kind of way, but I knew that he probably would give me some more stupid crap to do if I did that, so I just decided to sneak into the basement (which was locked, but luckily I swiped the key from Blue before I threw away the Xtransceiver) and maybe talk to Sableye and see if my Xtransceiver was still working.

I put in the key and entered the basement, and I locked the door behind me so that no one would follow me or anything stupid like that. The basement was stupidly dark, but luckily I had fairly keen eyesight in the dark. However, I couldn't shrink myself, so I had to deal with only being able to crouch-walk, sit down, and crawl. I had never noticed how cramped the basements in Kanto were before! But that was probably because I'd never been in a basement in Kanto before. "Go, Sableye…!" I murmured, sending out my Pokemon. I knew I was really lucky that he was one of the two I hadn't lost—not only was he my strongest Pokemon, but he was probably my best friend, even if he wasn't human.

Sableye left his Pokeball upon my throwing it, and he reveled in the darkness for a bit, sniffing around for gems and doing that sort of stuff. Just then, I wondered what happened to the gems the ghosts had given me on my way to Tragetu earlier. I reached into my bag, and I didn't find anything there except for Chandelure's Pokeball. "Of course they took all my gems," I thought, feeling stupid and facepalming for ever assuming they would still be there in the first place. Sableye seemed to remember those gems, too, and scurried over to my bag and started to search through it. When he came up empty-handed, I could hear the sadness in his cry.

"Sorry, I think those Team Rocket jerks stole all of your food," I apologized quietly, letting Sableye sit in my lap. "Hey, do you want to talk to Flicka and see if she's okay? Maybe then we can talk to Hisashi, and everyone else back in Literoa. What do you say?"

Sableye looked up at me, his gemstone eyes glittering, and nodded slightly. I smiled, and pressed some buttons on the side of my Xtransceiver, turning it on and pressing the 'Call' button beside Flicka's name. The screen was blank for a bit, before I saw Flicka's face appear on the screen. "Hey Rei, it's you this time, right?" she asked, peering at the screen. "I can't see anything on the screen."

"Oh, yeah, sorry," I muttered, setting it up so an LED light shined at me as I spoke and putting the volume down on it so no one would hear our conversation. "I'm in a dark place right now, and we need to be quiet."

"Where are you, anyway?!" she questioned furiously, her face starting to turn a shade redder than her orange hair. "Yukio's been going nuts ever since Edric's Archeops went back to him and no one saw you in Poemira! We've all been searching for literal _hours_, and Charizard and I are exhausted from all the Flying we've had to do!"

"Hey, hey, calm down! I had no control over this situation," I whispered. Sableye popped up and looked curiously at the screen.

"Okay, then what happened? Not to be rude or anything, but I seriously want to go home," Flicka asked, being a little quieter now, but she was still angry.

Well, to spare you people from my explanation, I'll just shortly say that I was starting to get angry and said some explicit stuff, so yeah. And you already know what I was explaining, so I don't need to repeat that to you or anything.

"Oh, alright," Flicka said, sounding sarcastic. "That made tons of sense. Are you sure you're not just lying? Because that whole part about the evil associations coming back doesn't make a lick of sense."

"I'm not lying! Where could I come up with a story like that from?" I urged her to believe me. "Really, I'm in Viridian City right now! Edric's Archeops is hurt now, isn't it?"

"Uh-huh, but we don't know how it happened," Flicka answered, still looking annoyed at me. "How did you know Archeops was hurt?"

"Because I was there when it happened, I just told you!" I growled. "That's also why I know where Daven is and I know someone else who knows where Hisashi is!"

"You don't personally know where he is?!" she questioned incredulously.

"Do you really need me to tell you the story again?!" I hissed.

She sighed angrily. "Okay, so let's assume for a moment that this story you're telling me is actually true. I've been Flying around all day, and nothing bad happened to me or Charizard," Flicka said. "And you said they were coming to 'rescue' us, right? Well, then how come no Johto gym leaders have come for me or anything? Plus, Yukio, Maeveen, and Edric are still here, too, so the only ones that aren't here are you three and Aika, and she's been on vacation visiting her folks in Hoenn all week, so she's accounted for."

"Are you sure that she's in Hoenn?" I countered. "She could have been Ice Beamed, too!"

"We all talked to her a few minutes ago; she's in Fortree City and she's perfectly safe," Flicka replied. "Even though she did say something about having to fill in for her cousin Winona there, it's unlikely that she was faking that call. I could even see the Fortree Gym behind her, and we even got to speak to her parents. I think you should stop spreading rumors like that."

"Well, whatever. I can tell you for a fact that Daven and I are here in Kanto, and Hisashi's okay, wherever he is," I said, finishing our debate. "Just be sure to tell Yukio that, alright?"

"Okay, then. If you're _really_ in Kanto, be sure to give a shout to my Aunt Molly on Cinnabar Island," she said sarcastically. Then, she hung up on me.

"I wonder what her deal is," I muttered to Sableye, who pouted a bit and sat down on the floor. Luckily, he was easily short enough to stand and walk in here, and I felt happy that he could but wished I could, too. After I talked with Sableye for a bit and made sure he was doing alright, I decided to leave the basement and go back upstairs to do something or another. I unlocked the door, and opened it to see that Sabrina was staring right at me. I fell over in surprise, expecting something else to be standing there, before gathering my bearings and climbing up the stairs to face her. "Oh, right… you knew I was here, didn't you?" I asked awkwardly. She smiled a bit, but otherwise she still seemed kind of cold.

"Yes," she answered plainly. "Even though Blue didn't know you had stolen his key and went down here, I knew five minutes prior that I could find you here now. I even knew that you would lock the door, so I pulled up a chair and waited for you to finish speaking with your gym leader friend…and your Pokemon, as well."

I paused for a bit, my cheeks red. "So, you didn't tell Blue—or anyone else, for that matter—that I was here, did you?"

"No. I simply told them that I needed to contemplate some things over here, and they didn't think twice about it," Sabrina answered. "Now come out of the basement so we don't attract any more attention." I nodded, and stepped out as she continued to speak. "Although Blue did notice that his key was missing and started blaming people, when he started to accuse you and didn't find you to call you out, he calmed down, so I didn't have to explain anything."

"So, why are you covering for me, anyway?" I wondered.

"Well, I could guess that you'd need your secluded privacy to tell everyone in Literoa about your whereabouts, so I decided not to rile everyone else up about it," Sabrina replied.

I nodded. "Blue had told me that there was nothing I could do to help and would have forced me to do all of his stupid errands if I didn't sneak down here without him knowing. Besides, I needed to make sure the rest of the gym leaders were safe, too."

"Well, then I'm pretty sure Blue didn't have any idea about what he was talking about," Sabrina responded.

"You'd better be careful saying that, though," I warned. "From what I've been able to understand about him, he gets offended and annoyed kind of easily."

"Don't worry about that," Sabrina said. "He calmed down earlier. He probably wouldn't care."

"Yeah, but what does calming down have to do with anything? He can still get angry again," I countered.

"To put this in better terminology," she began, escorting me over to where Blue was lying on the floor, unconscious, "he has _really_ calmed down."

**This is one of the worst (and not to mention, silliest) cliffhangers I've ever posted/written. Or maybe it's serious and he's actually in danger? Only the next chapter will tell. **

**What will happen to the other Literoa gym leaders?**

**Is Blue going to be alright?**

**How did Blue get knocked unconscious, anyway?**

**Why is Blue being a jerk?**

**Why am I asking all these questions that I know the answers to?!**

**I guess because you don't, but you can find out for yourself in the next chapter, so it really doesn't even matter. Goodbye until next time!**


	7. Lies and Of Course, It Was Daven Again

"What the hell?!" I questioned incredulously. "What happened to him?"

"Well, he started interrogating everyone and looking for people to accuse of stealing the key to his basement, before he started to blame you for it and he ran around looking for you, until he slipped on some papers he left on the floor and hit his head on the ground," Cheren explained, seeming more mild-mannered now.

I froze, amazed and humored at the same time. "Really, now?" I asked, giving Blue a bit of a smug glance because he couldn't see me doing it. Besides, I think I had pretty much gotten over my star-struck status by then and realized that he was a bit of a douche. "Is he going to be alright?"

"Yes, he doesn't even have a bruise on his head or anything," Misty (I remembered her right off the bat!) said. "We checked."

"Yeah, but does he have a concussion or something? I mean, that could be kind of bad, right?" I continued. All the other gym leaders looked at each other, before looking to Sabrina.

She broke under the pressure pretty soon, surprisingly enough. "Okay, well, we came up with that cover story because we thought telling you this might disturb you," Sabrina admitted. "In actuality, I gave him a bit of a mental attack so he would faint. He never hit the floor, either, because Misty caught him right before he did."

I looked around. "That didn't disturb me," I said plainly. "That didn't disturb me at all. If anything, the story you made up scared me more."

"Why's that?" Misty asked, amused. "Were you worried that he had gotten hurt?"

"Well, duh! Why wouldn't I be? It's his gym and he seems to be one of the ones in charge around here, so him getting hurt and having a concussion and all that would be pretty bad, don't you think?" I answered.

"Oh." Misty seemed less amused now. "Yeah, I guess that would be pretty bad."

Well, by that point I couldn't help but smile a little bit, but then I turned to Sabrina and asked, "So, when's he going to wake up and what are we going to tell him when he does wake up? We can't just outright tell him that you mentally assaulted him, because even saying that you did that right now sounds both freaky and strangely dirty."

"He should be waking up within the next five minutes, and we were planning to tell him the story we just told you, and then put the key in his pocket and tell him that he just misplaced it," Sabrina responded. "In fact, I can see him stirring right now. Hurry, give me the key so I can put it in his pocket."

I nodded, and gave the blue key (seriously, what color did you think it would be, red?) to Sabrina, and she quickly slipped it into Blue's pants pocket. "I didn't put it in his coat pockets because that's where he keeps his items," she told me, even though I never asked in the first place. I had guessed at the time that she knew I'd need to know that later or something, thus why she told me. The only reason I'm not telling you whether or not this becomes important later right now is because that would be a spoiler and spoilers spoil things. No duh.

All of us backed away so we wouldn't look like weirdoes when he woke up, and instead just formed a loose circle around him as he sat up and rubbed his head, looking peeved and confused. "What happened?" he questioned imprecisely, both not knowing what was going on and being annoyed at the same time.

Someone repeated the story Cheren had told me at first, but he didn't seem to believe it in the slightest bit. "You guys are lying, aren't you?" he verified warily. "If I was so mad about the key and slipped while I was trying to find it, then how was I so dumb not to notice that the stupid thing was in my pocket all along?"

"Because you didn't notice that the key was there," someone answered.

"It was sitting on my desk a few seconds before I started flipping out! Why would have I randomly put it in my pocket before then?" Blue continued, standing up and forcing everyone to back even farther away from him. "Unless one of you stole it and you made up that lie to keep me from finding out… Alright, then! Who did it? Fess up now, and you won't have to scurry to the Pokemon Center, protecting your exhausted and fainted Pokemon from further harm!"

"Is this really such a good idea…?" One of the Kanto gym leaders, Erika (whom I didn't recognize right away) murmured anxiously to Blue.

"Well, we've got to find out somehow! None of us are leaving until I find out who stole it, knocked me out, and told everyone to keep it a secret from me," Blue announced.

"I don't think your investigation will last for much longer, then." I recognized that stupidly smooth, really evil/dark sounding tone! Of course, as always, it was Daven, here to screw me over yet again. What a jerkhole. He walked out from the back of the crowd and butted people rudely away until he was standing right by my side. Immediately, he grabbed my arm in a vice grip, ensuring I couldn't get away. "I think we've got our culprit right here."

Blue looked at me with a weird kind of look that I couldn't really place. "Oh. That didn't surprise me." He walked closer to me and searched through my pockets. "That didn't surprise me at all."

I couldn't help but laugh a little bit that he had unintentionally kind of repeated something I had said earlier in context with this situation without even knowing it, before I looked back at him. "Well, okay. I took your key before you sent me off to throw away that stupid Xtransceiver earlier. So what? You've got the key back, I did what I needed to in there, I'm not doing it again, and I didn't even see anything weird in there."

"Yeah, I guess you're right, but you don't just steal keys from people like that!" Blue said, sounding offended for some odd reason. "That's just… weird."

"Okay, and that's just it, then?" I verified. "There's not going to be any stupidly overreactive-style punishment coming my way or anything, right?"

"No, I mean, the key's alright, nothing really bad happened, other than you knocking me out," Blue said. "Oh, and that's another thing; what kind of weird ghostly powers did you use to do that?"

"That was Sabrina," I admitted, looking to her.

Blue nodded. "Alright, then, we've got that all accounted for. I mean, if I was being as crazy as I've been led to understand here, I guess I kind of deserved a psychic-based mental assault."

"However, you seem to be forgetting that she still stole your key and set you up to think otherwise," Daven said, bringing up the part of my arm which he was holding a bit higher, as if I was raising my hand…err, elbow.

"I thought we already discussed that she's off the hook, guy," Blue said, beginning to walk away. "She didn't do much of anything wrong. In fact, I think it's kind of cool that she managed to get the key away from me just like that without me even noticing."

"Yeah, you heard him, Daven!" I said, looking to him with a smirk. I brought back my free hand. "That means get _off_!" And with a special kind of emphasis on that last part of the sentence, I backhanded Daven in the face, took my arm away from his grasp, and pushed him over. He fell onto the floor onto his elbows, and I walked away, wiping the imaginary dust off of my hands. Everything was all quiet, until Daven started to cry out for the other gym leaders to 'Apprehend me at once!' because 'That fiend _cannot_ get away with this!'

And then, as I walked away with my back turned to him wondering where the heck I was going to go in this direction anyway, I couldn't help but laugh at the stupid way he talks when he's not talking to me. That is, until I reached a wall and my Xtransceiver started to ring. By this point, everyone had pretty much went back to normal, so they didn't notice me as I accessed my Xtransceiver and picked up, seeing Yukio on the screen. "Rei, Flicka has been telling me that you-!"

"Said a bunch of lies, left without telling you, and somehow got Daven to come with me wherever I am and got Hisashi missing, before I somehow harmed Edric's Archeops?" I finished for him. Judging by the look on his face, he wasn't pleased at all; if you need me to describe what his expression looked like exactly, I'd say it was an equal blend of anger and confusion.

"Where are you, Daven, and Hisashi?" Yukio demanded. "And no playing games with me! Flicka might be your friend, but the same doesn't go for me, so just tell me where you really are, and what happened to Daven and Hisashi before I have to report this to Orlagh!"

"Like I said to Flicka, Daven and I are in Kanto right now—Viridian City, to be exact—and Hisashi's okay, we just don't know where he is yet," I answered. "I swear. Do you even want to see the huge convention of gym leaders here in Viridian Gym for proof?"

"Yes, why not? Let's see what cardboard cutouts you've prepared for me today," Yukio said. I took off my Xtransceiver, and pointed the screen outward at the gym leaders around the room, and I turned it around gradually so I could show him everyone there. After I put it back on, he looked shocked. "…those were actually the real gym leaders…" he muttered to himself, and I couldn't help but smile a bit that he had to remind himself that I was being more important than him right now. "But anyway, how and why have you went to Kanto, and why is Daven there too, and what happened to Hisashi?! Flicka told me you told her some crackpot story about all the old villainous groups coming together with Ice Beams and Surfing Pokemon sinking and all sorts of other nonsense about you losing most of your Pokemon!"

"To make this explanation short," I began, "that 'crackpot story' actually happened to us."

"You're lying," Yukio scoffed.

"Oh? Then how and why am I in Kanto with Daven of all people and why are there this many gym leaders here?" I countered.

"I don't know, you tell _me_!"

"Well, then, why don't you try Flying here on your Delibird, or whatever Pokemon you use for Flying, and see for yourself?" I challenged. "Be mindful of all the randomly occurring Ice Beams on your way, though, and be sure to land in Viridian City, not any other city. You can tell it's Viridian City because it's Viridian colored from above."

"I know what Viridian City looks like from above!" He snapped. "Anyway, I don't have time for your childish games right now, but I guess if you insist, I might go to Kanto soon. Fortunately, my Swanna is an exceptionally fast Flyer. But if I get there and either you're there goofing off or you're not even there at all, I will get you fired, I guarantee that!"

And then, he hung up on me. He's such a jerk! But hey, I had much cooler stuff going on than him right then, so when he got there, he should have been jealous of me for being so much cooler than him.

But anyway, after he hung up on me, that reminded me of something I was meaning to do, but I guess I had forgotten to do it before. I walked over to Sabrina where she was writing some things down, and asked, "So, about Hisashi… where is he?"

"He should be here soon," she answered plainly, not turning to face me. "Fortunately, his Abra used Teleport just as Winona's Altaria was hit by that Ice Beam. I'm fairly certain that he should be teleporting about trying to locate us as we speak."

"Are you sure? I'm sorry, but he's kind of a good friend of mine," I said.

"He's fine." Her final words to end that conversation were cold and severe, as if she was forcing me to believe her. Either that, or she was just annoyed that I was asking her so many times. Well, I had to believe her since I had nothing better to go off of, so I walked off and wondered what I needed to do then, since I didn't really have any priorities and I hadn't been told by anyone what I had to do yet.

I was just about to go sit somewhere and mess around with my Xtransceiver, when suddenly someone grabbed me by the shoulder. "Hey! What's the big idea?" I questioned, before I turned about and—no surprise!—it was Daven. "What do _you _want?" I demanded.

He dragged me over to the front door of the gym and left with me. He slammed the door shut behind him. "You may not have gotten your comeuppance now," he growled, not sounding at all like himself, "but rest assured, you'll get punished eventually. By the time those guys in there are all taken hostage by the enemy, you're not going to be around anymore to help."

"So let me get this straight; you're threatening to kill me right now, right? Like, right here in front of everyone in town, with a whole bunch of gym leaders inside there that should know by now that you dragged me out here to tell me this?" I verified. "You _do_ know how stupid that sounds, right?"

"It doesn't matter, though!" Daven snapped. "No one can do anything to stop me! You've been my prime enemy since day one, and I'd obliterate you now if you weren't important for other things."

"Okay, so now what are you, a double-crosser or something?" I retorted sarcastically. Even though I had a feeling that he would say yes, I just thought I shouldn't accuse him of something like that with only this as proof. Even if I hate the guy with every fiber of my being, I still felt like that would be over-the top somehow.

He glared at me. "If I hear you telling anyone about this, consider your remaining two Pokemon dead!" he threatened, before marching towards the door. "Not like I wasn't planning on that soon, anyway," he added, before grabbing my hand and bringing me back inside forcefully.

Did he really think I was stupid enough to let him scare me? I was in a room full of gym leaders; obviously if one of them woke up and noticed, they'd come and help me out. What did I have to be afraid of? I watched Daven glare at me while I walked away, but after he had stopped, I immediately scrambled over to Blue (I would have went to Sabrina, but her sharp reply last time I asked her a question intimidated me) and said, "Hey! I think I just got some really important info that you need to know."

He turned around. "Oh yeah? What is it?"

"Well, believe it or not, Daven just dragged me outside and threatened to kill me and my Pokemon," I explained simply, trying to be calm.

"Oh, that's not good," he said, being painfully obvious, but at least he cared enough to listen this time. "Well, what are we going to do about it?"

"We? For real? I get to do something now?" I questioned incredulously.

"Duh. It has to do with you, after all, why wouldn't I need you for this?" Blue said, shrugging.

"W-well, I think…uh…kicking him out would be bad, because even if his Pokemon are stupid cheaters, they're admittedly strong, and letting those bad guys get them would be really bad, right?" I stammered, getting nervous.

"Uh-huh, pretty much," He said, nodding. "Good job, I guess."

My face turned red for both the reasons a person's face would usually turn red for. "Was that sarcastic, or not?" I asked.

"I don't know, but we've pretty much been over that letting those bad guys take any of us, evil denomination or not, would be bad because our Pokemon are much stronger than they should have access to, so I'd think that'd be more than just obvious." He didn't sound mean, but what he said seemed mean, so I growled a little bit and thought harder.

"Well, it's too late to take action now, isn't it?" I said tersely, looking behind me and seeing through the window of the gym that the sky was becoming orange. "But I think that in the morning, we should take his Pokemon from him, since he doesn't know how to properly use them anyway, and then send him off. That's a good idea, right?"

"Yeah, but since he's evil and all, sending him off wouldn't be a good idea," Blue said. "If we just let him go like that, he could tell the other bad guys where we are and everything. Granted, they already know, but still…"

"They already know we're here?!" I questioned incredulously. "Then what are we still doing here?! We should go to someone else's gym, like, right now! How haven't you guys already been kidnapped or whatever?!"

"How haven't _you_?" he countered sarcastically. "I mean, you've been sleeping soundly all on your own in the least safe place in the world from those guys. We were all seriously surprised that you guys were actually there in Literoa when we got over there. Really, we expected you to be in their custody already by the time we got there."

"I hope you don't mean that I couldn't have handled something like that by myself…" I growled irritably.

"Well, that's totally what I'm saying, so it looks like your hopes have been dashed," Blue sneered. "But anyways, I do agree that we should get his Pokemon taken away from him tonight. Do you want to be the one to do it?"

I couldn't help but think that letting the victim of a death threat take away said threatener's Pokemon from him while they're sleeping, but I didn't want him to know that for whatever reason, so I ended up nodding my head and accepting his offer, no matter how stupid that makes me sound.

"Good, then." He had this weird kind of twinkle in his eye that I assumed was meant to be mischievous, but it seemed odd for a mischievous look, even though I knew he was mischievous and must have been good at that kind of thing. "You should stay awake in your sleeping bag until midnight, when everyone's asleep, and then you need to sneak up on him and take his Pokemon without him noticing. Don't worry, I'll be on guard, so no one will ask what you're doing unless he wakes up, and then I'll try to back you up."

I nodded again, and then asked "When are we even going to bed, anyway, and where are our sleeping bags? I haven't seen them anywhere around here."

"We're going to set everything up at around eight, and try to sleep at nine or so. The sleeping bags are in the storage closet," Blue answered straightforward. "Speaking of which, would you like to help out around here again?"

"_Hell_ no," I answered. "I think helping get Daven out of here is a good enough job for me to do right now."

Blue shrugged. "Whatever you say," he said. "But you at least have to get your sleeping bag out in half an hour like the rest of us. We're not babysitting you, remember?"

"Not like I'd want you to babysit me, either," I scoffed. "You'd be a horrible guardian. I mean, if I wasn't important enough when I fell off Archeops, I'd be dead right now, and that's not very good supervision, I must say."

Blue responded with a smug look and said, "Pfft! Just get your bed set up already and stop trying to insult me."

"But no one else is yet! If I make my bed early, people will think I look stupid!" I complained.

"You look stupid complaining that you'll look stupid," Blue pointed out like a total wise guy. "Now get to it so people won't start to look at you funny."

I was still irked, but I went with it and opened the storage room closet, only to be buried under a mess of rolled-up sleeping bags, some of which came unrolled and sprawled out. I didn't see this, though, because I was trapped under the pile. I listened as gym leaders took their sleeping bags from on top of me, until I could see the ceiling, and Blue was looked over me with a humored grin. I growled, "I'm going to punch you if you keep looking at me like that…!" Even though it was an empty threat, it was enough to make Blue slide out of the picture and allow me to stand up, a purple sleeping bag in my arms. I had picked it out while I was under the pile, so I decided I'd use it, and also because all the other sleeping bags were being used already. I set mine up near the front of the room where Blue was sitting in a chair doing his guard duty, while everyone else was pretty much spread out and clustered in little groups with their gym leader buddies.


	8. The Scary, the Bad, and the Scary Bad

**There are new characters being introduced later in the chapter who were changed, but saying who they are now would be a spoiler, so I'll wait until the end. Don't freak out on me until you read why I did it, alright?**

After a while, some guy from Sinnoh (who I didn't recognize at first, but then I remembered Cheren calling him Roark earlier, so I guess that's what he's called) went over to the front door and put his hand near the light switch. "Good night, everyone," he said, before switching off the lights and going outside, presumably for guard duty outside.

I scuffled underneath my bed covers, and switched on my Xtransceiver. I plugged in some special Xtransceiver headphones (which I honestly should have used in the basement, but I guess then it was less imperative that I should be quiet then) and decided I'd mess with some stuff on that for a little bit, until suddenly an image popped up on my screen. "Whoa, it's actually you?!" the person on the screen questioned. After jogging my memory for a few moments, I recognized that it was Horizon, the girl who I had met in Novelatta.

"Oh, hi, Horizon," I greeted at silently as possible.

"Guess what?" she asked. "My mom gave me an Eevee today, an hour or two after you left; I'm an official trainer now!"

"That's great," I said, "but this isn't really a good time… call me back in the morning, okay?"

"Okay, I'm sorry." Horizon hung up, looking crestfallen, and I realized that I felt the same way. If I didn't need to be so quiet just then, we could have talked and become friends, but instead I had to stay dead quiet for about another half an hour. Basically, for the rest of the time while I waited, I messed around with the themes on it, before it was midnight, and I poked my head out from under the covers.

Everyone was sleeping soundly, some of them with their Pokemon curled up comfortably at the end of their sleeping bags, and I turned to see that Blue had fallen asleep, too. _"I'll keep watch for him after I take care of Daven's Pokemon," _I told myself._ "He deserves the rest after all the stuff he went through to get me here yesterday."_

Cautiously, I stood up as silently as silently as I could, and I searched around until I saw Daven's (ironically) bright white sleeping bag near the front door. I tiptoed through the maze of sleeping people, tripping over a toe or two, until I got over to him.

I noticed his sleeping seemed forced, almost kind of bogus-looking, but I didn't let that fake me out, since I had an important mission to carry out. I unzipped his sleeping bag quietly, and tried to feel if their Pokeballs were in his pockets or something. But since they weren't, I growled a little to myself_. "Where did he put them?!"_ I questioned myself furiously, before searching around. Eventually, I noticed the strap of his bag hanging out underneath his pillow._ "Looks like I'm going to have to tooth fairy this…" _I thought uneasily._ "His sleep looks unbelievably light; this is gonna be really hard."_

Tentative, I reached under his pillow, and started to tug on his bag a little bit. The actual part of it that holds thinks started to creep into view, but I jumped when Daven rolled over in his 'sleep'. _"It's alright, just keep going,"_ I told myself, before tugging a little harder, until the zipper to open the bag was in plain sight. _"Bingo."_

I tersely pulled the zipper open, being careful not to make enough noise to attract anyone's attention, and his six Pokeballs rolled out of it. In a kind of frantic way, I caught them from the floor before they nudged anyone's sleeping areas, and I put them in my bag instead, gently prodding his bag back under his pillow with my toe.

I snuck back over to where Blue was asleep, and wondered how I could get him out of the chair without alerting anyone's attention to me, because obviously I couldn't pick him up or anything—he was, like, two times my size! But then, I figured that it was okay that he was asleep in the chair, because I could just as easily sit down on my sleeping bag to keep watch. But first, I had to make sure I peeked outside to make sure that that Roark guy who was doing watch outside was still awake, so I wouldn't need to cover for him, too. I wandered over to the door, and opened the door slightly and quietly, until I saw that he was awake. However, he turned after I cracked open the door, so I closed it and scampered back to my sleeping bag. As he opened the door to investigate, I was already faking slumber in my sleeping bag. After he found that nothing was up, he closed the door again, and I climbed out of my sleeping bag, and sat on it instead.

A few more hours of keeping watch on all these sleeping people later, I was exhausted and more than ready to fall asleep, until I, well, actually did. From what the others have told me about this, apparently everyone else woke up an hour later, and didn't bother waking me up with them because they knew Blue didn't finish guard duty.

They mostly knew because he wasn't there when they woke up.

Yeah, yeah, spoiler alert, something (probably) happened to Blue. Like you weren't going to learn in a few seconds anyway, but still. When I woke up, I looked around so I could make some fun with Blue about him falling asleep on duty but, like I said, he was gone. Another thing that happened that morning was that Daven wasn't there anymore, either. I figured that he had just left because his Pokemon were gone at first, but we'll get to him a bit later.

I noticed that Sabrina seemed really cold and troubled all day, but I never got up the courage to ask why, since she kind of freaks me out, but I already said that so I really have no need to repeat myself. Everyone else was making sure everything was going alright with the Literoa guys they didn't pick up and that they didn't lose any more gym leaders/Pokemon to those bad guys, and other than Blue (apparently), they didn't.

Eventually, though, after they had finished all their morning stuff, they started to investigate where Blue had gone. "I think it was little-miss-ghost over here," Cheren sneered immediately, glaring at me with distrust. "If she was awake long enough to keep guard, too, maybe she waited for Blue to fall asleep so she could get him!"

"Okay, my annoyance with you out of everyone here has just hit the point where if you ever mention anything even related to me again, I'm going to toss you onto the moon. Okay? You're seriously being a prick for no reason," I growled, stomping on his foot.

So then, a lot of arguing and theories and all that jazz came up, until Blue suddenly burst through the door. "Hey, everyone," he greeted quickly, before going over to his work station. I knew that he sounded kind of off in a way, but I just figured he had woken up and went on a secret walk or something, and I always sound weird in the morning, so I didn't really care much more than that.

"Blue, where were you? We were worried sick," Misty said.

"None of your business," Blue snapped as he searched through his desk for a bit longer, before he stopped to face us. "But anyway, I've got to talk to our Literoa guest privately. It's important."

"Blue, that's nonsense. In fact, you don't even sound like-," Erika began, before Blue shushed her.

"I'm talking to her, everyone else should go to the Celadon Department Store to stock up on items or something," Blue shooed them away. They all looked to Sabrina for her take on the matter.

"I can't see anything that advises we should do otherwise," She said, shrugging. Now that I reflect back on that, she sounded kind of weird, kind of like she didn't know. But I guess her word was enough for the others, because she and all the rest of them left right afterwards, and it was just me and him.

"What's up?" I asked calmly.

He had the weirdest expression on his face, almost as if he was pretending to be someone else. "Rei, there's something I need to tell you…" he began theatrically, grabbing my hand. Shocked, I tried to break from his grip but failed. He got kind of peeved, but I ignored him.

"W-what is it…?" I questioned, starting to get inquisitive and anxious.

"I…I'm not who you think I am," he said, looking down. This time, I thought he looked really different from himself. Did he drink too much coffee that morning or something?

"Okay, then just who are you? If you're trying to be romantic or something weird like that, you watch too many daytime soap operas for me to take you seriously at all," I said. "Spit it out already."

"In reality, I'm…" Suddenly, Blue spun around, until he transformed into this weird purplish-pink haired guy with Team Rocket clothes on, and he gripped both of my hands tighter. "Petrel, former Team Rocket executive!"

"Oh, I knew it!" I cried, before I tried in vain to break from his grip again. Then, I reared back my leg and gave him a nice kick to the groin, and he let go of me.

Immediately, I made a dash for the door, as I heard that weirdo Petrel collapse behind me. However, upon opening the door, I saw more weirdoes waiting outside for me; some green-haired guy who was a lot older than me with a Rubik's cube or something, and a blue-haired guy in a suit like Petrel's and a hat. "Really?!" I questioned incredulously. "How long did it take you jerks to come up with this stupid plan, anyway?!"

"That doesn't matter," the green haired guy said, and he grabbed my hand, too, though he didn't seem as angry or aggressive or anything about it; in fact, it seemed more like he didn't even want to grab my hand in the first place. "You have to come with us for the good for your Pokemon."

"Yeah, because making them evil slaves or whatever would be so much better than the friendship I have with them right now," I retorted, breaking from him easily. I backed away. "What the hell did you do with Blue?" I asked aggressively.

"He's encountered the better side of our rivalry and has been taken from you and given to us," the blue haired guy said.

"…What? You mean he's evil now or something?" I wondered.

"No, we took him," the green haired guy corrected me instantaneously.

"Gosh darn it, N…" the blue guy muttered indignantly.

"Look, I don't even really want to do this, but there's not much I can do to help it, Proton," the green guy named N said to his friend. "If I had a choice, I'd just let this girl stay here while I rescue her Pokemon from further harm. But noo, now my dad is telling me that we have to manipulate you and gain your trust so that we can be as powerful as we were and more so. I guess telling him that I quit all this evil stuff didn't get through his stupid head, that stupidhead…"

"Wait, what was that part about manipulating Team Rocket?" the blue guy named Proton questioned. "We're manipulating Plasma and all those other fools for _our _benefit! If you think _you're_ on the winning side, think again, you darned hippie!"

"Look, like I said, I'm not even a _part_ of Plasma anymore, but my stupid dad is forcing me to be a part again because he said he'll kill a Skitty if I don't help him! I don't care what stupid team thinks they're in charge, I just don't want a Pokemon to die because I didn't even _know_ that was possible before he warned me about it!" N shouted.

"Just shut up and grab that girl again, and this time with conviction, or else I'll do it for you!" Proton hissed. However, what they didn't know is that I had already swiped the basement key from the other end of the room while they were fighting and was unlocking the basement door right then, as they stood there looking all dumbfounded and stupefied. _"I had no idea the villains were that stupid! I'm surprised they managed to get anyone's Pokemon at all!" _I thought, as the door swung open and I locked myself in.

I listened as Proton started threatening to knock down the door, and N told him to stand aside. "Now we play the waiting game…" I muttered to Sableye's Pokeball, where he was hiding for now.

"I don't care if you were the one who went out and bought the cake for our getting together party, I'm not going to let you barge in there like that! You're the one who let her get in there in the first place, so you're going to get her out without breaking anything, because then they'll know something is up when they get back, and they're going to get back really soon, so get moving or my dad will fire you or whatever," N said.

"Fine! Do you want me to lockpick it or something? Because I can lockpick it if you really insist that I should," Proton asked scornfully.

"As long as nothing bad happens to the lock, I think you'll be fine, but hurry up!" N commanded.

"Hey, Blue, is everything alright in there?" I heard Sabrina ask from the door. Although now I know that she knew there were bad things going on inside then, she did seem convincingly oblivious.

"Yes, but you should give us a few more minutes! Why don't you keep shopping?" Proton called, doing a really bad impression of Blue's voice, but I guess Sabrina just decided to leave.

Now, before you get all uppity about Sabrina knowing I was in trouble and not doing anything, it's not such a big deal since I know now why she did it and I can understand. First of all, she saw all of this coming before any of this crazy stuff even started to happen, and she saw everyone else getting taken forcefully and all that before she even knew fully what it meant, and she had to deal with that the entire time this was going on, which couldn't have been very good for her to keep in for so long. Secondly, there were two (former) Team Rocket executives and the (former yet forced) King of Team Plasma in the room, and like Blue had told me the day prior, none of the gym leaders were really in the best shape to be fighting, so it was for the best that she didn't sacrifice herself and her Pokemon for me, when I'd end up the same way regardless. If I were her, I probably would have done the same thing, honestly.

So I was sitting there, listening as the door clicked, and I decided that when Proton would finally get the door open, I'd either punch him square in the nose or poke his eyes with scissor fingers. I was waiting pretty much right in front of the door, and my hand was ready. And the second I saw movement from the door, I sprung up and attacked.

"There, you happ-?!" Proton began, before I punched him in the face and sprinted for the door again._ "There's no way there's any losers waiting there for me this time around!"_ I thought triumphantly, before I felt something trip me and before I knew it, I was on the floor.

"Looks like there's nowhere to run now, missy," Petrel mused.

"Yeah there is. The door's not locked or anything; I could just get up and run over to it again. Being tripped doesn't lock it," I reasoned in a smart-alecky way so I could get on their nerves and, in a way, go out with a fight.

"Not if we grab you!" Proton said, nursing a bloody nose as he nudged N to come grab me as I stood up and headed for the door.

"No, you're doing it!" N argued, shoving him back. "You're the one who said to grab her in the first place, and there's no way I'm taking orders from you, of all people!"

"Why not? I'm a much better leader than you! What kind of leading did you do as the 'King' of Team Plasma, anyway? Because I'm pretty sure all you did was order for three guys to lead a girl two steps forward so you could monologue to her, and that's pretty much it. The rest of it was your dad or something," Proton retorted.

"Hey, shut up! I don't need to take your crap!" N growled. "Plus, I was told that speech is the best way to solve problems, so that's why I decided to speak to her, in hopes she would join me!"

"No, the only way to solve problems is to get your hands dirty!" Proton argued. "Believe me, we've tried plenty of times to get those quiet strong types to realize how stupid they're being, and all they do is Hyper Beam us into walls without killing us for some reason. We even told one kid that he could be a senior executive, and he just killed all our Pokemon instead of responding!"

"Threats get you nowhere," N said pompously, literally holding his nose high. "She needed to know the wrongs she was doing by not helping."

"Hey, you guys, over here, right beside the door, about to leave, are you done fighting? Because I'm done putting up with your stupid bullcrap," I said, standing right by the front door and holding the doorknob.

"Stop right there!" Proton cried, getting to his senses.

"Why? What are you going to do about it?" I challenged. Oh, and if you're wondering why I didn't just leave, I had caught on to why Sabrina had left me to my own problem earlier by then, so I already knew how the book would end, if you catch my drift.

"We'll battle!" Proton responded.

"How about we not battle?" N suggested.

"We're battling!" Proton snapped, before throwing out three Pokeballs. "Triple Battle style! Go, Weezing, Golbat, and Gengar!"

His Pokemon appeared on the field, except I knew immediately that there was something up with that Gengar. Mostly, I noticed how it was my Gengar, but I also noticed that she didn't seem to care about me at all, though it did look like she recognized me at first. "Hey, that's my Gengar, you jerk!" I hissed. "Give her back!"

"Hey, finders keepers, losers weepers," Proton teased. "Besides, she's a much better fit on our side, wouldn't you agree?"

"I never agreed to this kind of misconduct!" N said. "You said we would be releasing the Pokemon we got back from their trainers, not taking them and using them for our selfish desires!"

"Okay, if that's what you really think, I'm going to phone up your dad and tell him that that Skitty has got to go pronto," Proton taunted. "'Hello, Mr. Ghetsis, or whatever? N's being a little douche. Get the paper shredder ready!'"

"Paper shredder?! Oh, _God_!" N gasped in horror. "This is only getting worse and worse! I hate all of this!"

"Too bad there's nothing you can do about it," Proton sneered. "Anyway, ghostie girl, send out your three so we can get this over with."

"You and I both know I don't have enough Pokemon for a Triple Battle, Proton," I growled. "It wouldn't be fair!"

"I guess you're right then," Proton said with a shrug, returning his Golbat to its Pokeball. "I'll just use Weezing and Gengar for a Double Battle, then!"

"Okay, but even though Gengar shouldn't be listening to you, I can agree to that!" I replied. "Go, Sableye and Chandelure!"

I threw out their Pokeballs, and they appeared, looking far too discombobulated at first, until they saw the enemy Pokemon. However, after they noticed Gengar, they looked at me with a puzzled expression. "That's not the same Gengar anymore, you guys! Those pricks brainwashed her or something!"

"Why are you yelling everything?" Proton asked cynically.

"Because you did it first," I replied snidely. He scowled.

"Okay, then we're playing for keeps! But, it wasn't like I wasn't planning on taking your Pokemon, anyway…Gengar, use Shadow Ball on her Chandelure!" Proton ordered, pointing. As Gengar allowed dark energy to ball up in her hands, I countered.

"Chandelure, dodge her and use Flame Blast! Meanwhile, Sableye, use Power Gem on his Weezing!" I called.

Chandelure gracefully danced out of the way, such was her talent, and she shot fire from one of her candles and nailed Gengar in the face with it. She was blown back by the damage, and picked herself up again, a slight black mark on her face. Meanwhile, Sableye had fully charged his Power Gem, and attacked Weezing, who was hit squarely and ended up knocked out already. Sableye is just a monster when it comes to one-hits like that.

Proton growled. "Well, don't think I don't have more tricks up my sleeve! Go, Golbat!"

He threw out his stupid bat guy, and cried, "Golbat, use Confuse Ray on Sableye, and Gengar, sneakily use Dark Pulse when they're least expecting it!"

"Well, now I am, because you just shouted out that you were going to use Dark Pulse," I muttered spitefully. "Stupid."

"Rrgh! Okay, then, just use Dark Pulse now on her Chandelure, Gengar!" Proton shouted.

First and foremost, Golbat moved first and managed to confuse my Sableye, although he almost evaded the attack. However, he wasn't evasive enough, so he ended up just wobbling around confusedly for a bit. Meanwhile, Gengar gathered a dark energy inside of her, before a black beam of energy shot from her belly, heading right for Chandelure. It was coming so fast, and Sableye was too confused to know what I did—that if Chandelure got hit by this beam (which was very inevitable), then she would faint and Sableye, being confused, would be my only Pokemon. Now, I bet I know what you're assuming I did about this—that I jumped 'sexily' in front of it or something—but really, there was hardly anything I could do about in. In pain, I watched Chandelure get hit head-on with the attack, and fall to the ground, shattering a bit of the upper part of her body before beginning to float falteringly to keep herself from breaking entirely on the ground.

"It looks like your Chandelure is down for the count and your only other Pokemon is confused. Ready to give in now?" Proton asked snidely.

"N-never!" I assured him (and myself) shakily, before saying, "Sableye, use Fire Punch on Golbat…!"

Sableye wobbled about, before Gengar appeared behind him form out of nowhere and punched him right in his face, sending him to the ground immediately. "No, Sableye!" I cried, running over to see him. Yes, he was, in fact, KO'd. I looked up, and saw that Proton was smirking and laughing like a stereotypical bad guy, while N looked shocked and kind of sad, but he stopped and tried feebly to imitate his coworker's laughter instead when he noticed I was looking at him.

"So, we'll be taking your Pokemon, then," Proton announced. "Hand over your Pokeballs; you've lost."

I ponder over my situation silently for a bit, as Proton glared impatiently at me. "Oh, yeah?" I questioned, standing up. "That's what _you_ think!"

And then, for the third time that day, I clocked a guy (well, the first time I kicked Petrel, but I still count it because seriously, that was pretty awesome, right?) and Proton fell over, his nose bleeding because I knew how to punch. However, N and Petrel were still there, and Rombo Comboing them probably wouldn't work out too well, or, at least, it felt like that to me. So, I began to run away, until one of those two jerks who were still standing up grabbed both of my hands in one swoop. I turned around, and to my surprise it was actually N who did it. "I'm sorry and all, but the Skitty needs to be safe," he said to me, hurt in his eyes, but I didn't really care then because I was too busy trying to break out of his grip, kick him in the shins, and elbow him in the eyes all at the same time.

"Having trouble restraining her…?" Proton asked, standing up woozily with blood running steadily from his nose before he wiped it with his sleeve. "I can help, if you so wish."

"Yes, I do wish she'd stop trying to hurt me, because I don't want this anymore than she does," N replied.

"If you really feel that way, than you'd LET ME GO!" I roared, finally managing to stomp on his foot and relinquish his grip on one of my hands.

Suddenly, some kind of weird powder got sprinkled near me, and I was only awake long enough to hear the words 'sleep powder' before I was asleep.

**Okay, first and foremost, changed characters; you probably already read about what they're like here and freaked out a bit, but before you try to eat me alive or anything stupid like that, let me explain:**

**Character:**** N (BW, B2W2). Starting with him because his fans are more likely to try and kill me for this.**

**Original Personality:**** He doesn't have much of one, really. DON'T KILL ME. His entire thing is pretty much 'Pokemon can FEEL things!' and 'I can hear what your Pokemon are saying!'. Admit it, IT IS his only thing. He has very little personality. **

**My Personality for Him:**** I probably shouldn't be any prouder about this than I am with Cheren. With Cheren, it was something that might happen with him in canon if this sort of thing was to happen, but here, I have it so that N is a manchild idiot who hates his dad (canon N did too, though) and talks somewhat fast and whines a lot. I'm sorry.**

**Why I Changed It:**** I feel like I'm in court…but anyway, I changed it because my sister (see, I told you we'd get back to her) and I made up 'joke personalities' for a lot of the major Unova characters. N's was that he was a stupid Mary-Sue with magical powers. Of course, I removed his magical powers, that'd just be stupid, but he's using that personality here. Why? Well, if you see that little genre right up there called 'Humor', that means that I have the artistic freedom to make funny things happen. So basically, I'm sorry for writing a funny fanfic. Sue me.**

**My Opinion on the Original: ****Although I like the idea of a PETA like criminal team in Pokemon and Team Plasma was cool, N needed more than a backstory. His personality was that of a rock, or just, you know, really bland. We had ours being dropped on his head a few too many times to make things a little more interesting. So really, sue me. I seriously didn't do anything wrong. And if it makes you feel any better, his personality doesn't even do anything to the plot. It's just there for laughs, so calm down.**

**Character:**** Proton (HGSS)**

**Original Personality:**** "****What do we have here? I am often labeled as the scariest and cruelest guy in Team Rocket… I strongly urge you not to interfere with our business!" ~Proton, **_**Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver**_**, 2010. In other words, he's the stereotype bad guy. You know, arrogant, kind of classy, evil as hell, you name it, Proton was that. He was a minor character, mind you, and I bet I'm the only one who remembers who he even is, but still. **

**My Personality for Him: ****I made him this guy with some anger issues and a knack for yelling at people so he would be the Red Oni to N's Blue Oni. If you don't understand, he's the fire to N's water or the stiff to counteract the fun guy. Even though N isn't very calm, he's the stupid one and Proton's smarter (a bit, at least), so it still fits. **

**Why I Changed It: ****This question is more like asking why I included him instead of someone with an established personality that I could work off of. Well, I was going through HeartGold when I wrote this part (or I had recently, at least) and I remembered liking Proton's design. Not his personality, or his Pokemon…his design. He's got a nice hat, can you blame me?! But anyway, I figured I'd give him a small part here just for fun. And since he had very little to work with, I added some to him. **

**My Opinion on the Original: ****"Now, wait just one second! Aren't you the one who got in our way at the Slowpoke Well? I see… You're doing all this because you want to make me angry. Be careful! But since you seem to wish it, I'll show you the full extent of a Team Rocket Executive's wrath!" **

**(After he loses)**

**"You may have won this time… But all you did was make Team Rocket's wrath grow…"~Proton, **_**Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver**_**, 2010. Seriously, this sounds like the bare minimum for a villain. So stereotypical. **

**But anyway, thank you for reading, and please return next time!**


	9. Evil Scientists and a Bad Thing Happens

The others told me that during this time, they were all at the department store, wondering what 'Blue' needed with me. Sabrina had secretly snuck out on her own to contribute the part of the inevitable event halfway through their forced shopping sprees, and when they got back, not only were Proton, N, and Petrel gone, but I was, too. They all knew something bad had happened to both me and Blue very soon after, and Cheren started to snivel, complain, and moan about how stupid everyone else was for falling for that ploy and how he would have stayed if Blue wouldn't have been so assertive about forcing everyone out, and promptly Mr. Bitch-a-lot was punched in the face by some lucky sucker who knew like I did that he deserved it after being such a prick the entire time about how 'stupid' all of Sabrina's plans were. I'd like to see him try to juggle around all these recurring visions and nightmares about all of your friends getting taken and their lives stripped away from them without getting too anxious about it all because you know it's going to happen sooner or later, and there's nothing you can do to stop it; all you can do is keep postponing it until it whips back without notice and nips you in the behind. And sooner or later, she'd be all alone, waiting for the bad guys to come get her, too, so at least she wouldn't be so overwhelmingly lonely with only her sights of the horrible future ahead in her mind.

Goodness to gravy, that must have majorly sucked for her.

But anyway, I bet you want to know more about what happened to me, right? Well, I'll get to that, if you're going to be so hasty about it. But first, I just thought I'd mention that after I was taken, a lot of security stuff went on, and everyone had their own special question that only they could answer and stuff like that, and everyone was teaching their Pokemon stuff like Foresight and Wonder Eye because they knew my Pokemon were being passed around and used by all those evil guys now and they didn't want to be caught with their pants down when a guy comes to beat them up with Pokemon they can't harm. Well, since I promised, back to me now.

So then, when I woke up later, I was lying on the floor of some windowless concrete room like an even worse jail cell than the ones on TV. There weren't even bars or anything; just a steel door with a little bit of a barred slit at the top. Immediately, I checked my pockets, but I already knew that Sableye, Chandelure, and all of Daven's Pokemon were gone, and were probably evil losers just like the guys who picked me up were by then (s0 basically, Daven's Pokemon didn't change a bit). My clothes were all dirty and weren't the ones I was wearing when I got taken, some weirdo cut my hair two or three inches shorter for some weird reason, and my head hurt like hell. Everything around me was all silent, except for the occasional random voice or a door opening and closing.

"This sucks…" I thought, angry. "If that green guy didn't want this to happen, then why was he the one who made it happen? And the next time I see Proton, I'm going to pound him into the ground like a nail and kick his butt so hard that he'll wish he was never born with one to begin with!

"And what are we doing here, anyway? If they needed us gym leaders for our Pokemon and just that, why are they trapping us, or, at least, I assume that everyone else is trapped somewhere, too…they could have just let us go off, or…killed us or something, although that would be really bad, but that would be the smarter thing to do, right? Then nobody would know that you took them in the first place, 'cos they'll be dead and stuff. Although I feel bad talking about morbid stuff like that, so I should really, really stop." I stood up, and looked around my room. Basically, all that was there was a toilet, a pillow, and a blanket. And you'd assume I'd woken up on the blanket, but no, by the feeling my body had right then, someone had just dropped me carelessly onto the floor, not even aiming for the bed. Man, room service in bad guy prison sucks.

I sat there a little while, mostly wondering what the others were doing without me and asking myself where Daven went off to. Although I think it's obvious now that he…well…I'll leave that for later, but then I still had no idea. Was he off being loose cannon and stuff? Did he actually join this band of evildoers? Or did he just go home to Literoa to cause more havoc there? I was still all disoriented from everything that had happened that day, so I really couldn't answer myself before the lock on my door clicked and it swung open. In came this generic-looking Team Plasma chick, and she closed the door cautiously behind me.

"What the hell do you want, what the hell am I doing here, where the hell am I, and where the hell are all my friends?" I demanded instantaneously in an even, austere kind of manner, kind of like I was being a secretary or something.

"I don't need to tell you any of that, you stupid little twat," the Team Plasma chick said with a weird accent I never heard before (in a serious kind of sense, at least). "However, you're needed in Room A-233, so I'm here to escort you there to make sure you don't indulge in any mischievous activity. "

"Oh hey, look at that," I said, taking my pillow and throwing it at her face in the most nonchalant way I could muster. "That's _mischief_. I'm _mischiefing_. You failed at doing your job correctly. Now what?"

She glared at me and kicked the pillow across the floor at my feet. "That didn't affect me. That didn't affect me at all. Also, 'mischiefing' isn't a word, and you're coming with me whether you like it or not."

If I had Pokemon then, I'd go like, "Oh yeah? Or what?" But since I knew that she had Pokemon and I didn't, she'd probably just respond by giving me a face full of Woobat and Patrat and what other kind of weird Pokemon they've got over there in Unova, and she's probably have them attack me or something. And even though I think this pretty much goes without saying, it really, really hurts if a Pokemon attacks you, strong or not. In fact, Hyper Beams are like an alternative to guns sometimes, and there's only ever been one guy to live through a Hyper Beam without getting blown up into tons of little bloody meat chunks, and that Hyper Beam was from one of Lance's Dragonite, so people say that the guy must have had Hyper Beam-proof armor or something, but it doesn't matter. What I'm saying is that if she decided to use anything even slightly more powerful than Bite, like Hyper Fang or something, then I would probably fall over, bleed around a bit, and become unconscious really soon, or maybe even worse if her Pokemon were strong enough. I mean, Daven's Weavile is at about level forty-something, and used a non same-type-attack-bonus move that was relatively weak in general terms, and it still knocked me out with severe damage. Hell, even as I'm writing this, my chest is still sore from that attack, that's how bad it was! Oh, and also, haha, she said the thing again, the whole "That doesn't/didn't (verb) me. That doesn't/didn't (verb) me at all" thing, you know, the thing from—yeaaah, I'll stop now.

So, I just complied and went with her. She took out two Pokeballs and released a pair of these weird little electric bug things that I remember Orlagh telling me about once, but I forgot what they were called, and all I remembered was that they were from Unova or something. Anyway, she put them on my hands, and said to me, "If you go any way other than by my side, they'll zap you and you'll be knocked unconscious. Understand?"

"I guess so," I muttered, annoyed and glaring away from her.

"Good, then, we'll get going now. You're a very important little bugger, did you know that?" she asked me as we walked down the hall.

"Huh? Why, what did I do?" I asked curiously.

"That's surely none of your business, and I can guess the higher-ups and the person summoning you here would want you to know the details," she responded sternly all of a sudden. "Now walk faster. We don't have all day, you little whelp."

"Hey, that's the first time I've ever been called that by anyone other than Daven," I said. "Are you two, like, cousins or something?"

She didn't answer me, and we turned down an even longer corridor than the one we had just went down. "Are we going to be there soon? I'm really looking forward to punching someone in the face without getting shocked by a couple of spidery bug thingies," I asked the Plasma Grunt girl.

"I think it goes without saying that you're restricted from doing that, but I must say, the way you said that makes me feel sorry for the chap you want to clobber," the Grunt said. "Who is that bloke, by the way? Is it that Proton fellow? Because between you and I, I'd sure like to give him the ol' one-two myself, if you know what I mean."

"No, there was this green guy-I think his name was N or something-but he kept going on and on about how he didn't want to do this and other stuff like that, yet he did it anyway for, like, no reason! He deserves a good beatdown," I explained.

"The King?!" She questioned incredulously, before pausing for a second and suddenly pinning me against the wall by my neck immediately afterwards. "There is no way in bloody hell I'd let you harm a hair on the King's head, you pitiful little miscreant! I don't care what my orders are; nobody speaks about our great King N like that without punishment!" She darted her eyes around rapidly. "If it weren't for all these other associates wandering about like lost sheep, I'd have turned you into a baked potato by now, you wretch! However, if I ever hear you speak like that again, consider it done. Do you understand?"

"_Hardly, what with your accent and all," _I wanted to say, but instead I said, "Yeah, yeah, whatever."

She warily relinquished her grip on me, and we continued uneasily down the hallway until she stopped me in front of a door. Without saying a word to me, she got out a key from her pocket and unlocked the door, before grabbing my arm and letting me into the room.

Basically, the first thing I saw when I entered the room was a huge cluster of Zubat and Golbat, but when I looked down, I also saw that there was this weirdo blonde guy with a blue curl of hair that wrapped around his head. My first thought was, and I quote, because now that I think about it, it would have been really funny for me to of said out loud:_ "Oh God, who's this guy? A bad cosplayer of something I've never heard of?" _By the way, you can't see me through the screen, but I'm chuckling right now and saying, "Great job being a critic, past me. That was funny as hell."

Yeah, but anyway, upon my entrance, the man turned away from the swarm of various –bat and faced me with a bit of a grin. "Hm, yes, and you are Rei Kurosama, am I correct?" He asked. I didn't even bother asking why he knew my name (everyone seems to know already, so why would I bother?), but he didn't mind. In fact, he kept talking. "Well, my name is Colress. You can call me Colly if you want, since I know you make up silly codenames for people you don't like."

"Nah, I'm just going to stick with your real name on this one," I responded. "It's dumb enough as it is."

He smiled humouredly, and I got nervous because I knew that whenever weird doctor-looking guys smile humorously, they're going to give you a shot and prick your thumb or something. "Well, then, I bet you're wondering what you're doing here, and why there are so many Zubat and Golbat around here."

"Darn right! Are you going to do something weird to me with them?" I questioned.

"Yes, I guess you could put it that way if you wish," he responded, turning back to them. "They're going to help me run some tests on you, if you don't mind."

"Tests? Well, since you're a doctor-y science guy, that doesn't mean anything good, so I'm just going to leave now," I said, before turning and marching for the door. However, the Grunt girl stopped me and motioned at the Pokemon on the backs of my hands, and I growled and went back. "Can I even say no?" I asked, begrudged.

"I'd rather you not, and by the looks of it, you managed to peeve off my assistant on the way here somehow, so I don't think you'll be able to exit," he answered. "What did you do, anyway? I've never seen such an angered person before in my life! Well, besides Giovanni's son, but he was born like that."

"Well, on the way here, I mentioned that there was this green douchebag that was being a hypocrite the entire time I was around him and now I want to beat him up for it," I answered.

"You mean N? Yes, I think he's being like that because of all the stress he's getting put through, having to comply to Team Plasma again and everything. Even I was uncomfortable at first, but with all of these new Pokemon to observe, I'm learning quite a lot," he explained.

"Look, I don't care, just tell me what I have to do, because those Zubat are giving me the evil eye," I interjected, looking at them. "Err, at least, I think they are…"

He smiled again. "For good reason. They need to have good aim if they hope to assist me well enough to be sufficient."

I paused, taking that in. "What?" I questioned confusedly.

"Hm. Well, you see, I'm doing experiments about this new theory I've been considering recently. You see, before now, blood was simply just the substance that keeps your body going and keeps you internally warm, but-."

"Yeah, you're going to have them use Leech Life on me, aren't you?" I verified, interrupting him. "Because for some odd reason, you need a huge cesspool of my blood for some experiment, right?"

"You catch on very well. All the other subjects I've tried this on didn't understand until I had to fully explain first handedly," Colress said with a grin. "All the better to test with... but yes, I'm going to have them all Leech Life you here in a moment. My theory entails that the blood of a person also carries important details making up their personality and lifestyle, and after vigorous searching, their very strengths and weaknesses. They key to discover these two things would be to first decode the personality, before working the research further until reaching it. However, with every other subject I've tried it on so far, their personalities weren't nearly as strong, so I couldn't gather much from them. However, from all the looking I've done about you and your mannerisms, you'll be the perfect subject, since your personality is so abrasive, dynamic, and boisterous that it will be very easy to see if I can gather all of these personality traits from your blood. For if I practice on human subjects first, it will only be easier to try the same on Pokemon so we can know what their strengths and weaknesses are, thus finally getting to use them properly as the strong, capable powerhouses they were designed to be at the very beginning."

I sighed exasperatedly. "Not only did I not catch a single sentence of that, but now I'm really, really confused. How much blood is this going to take, exactly, and how badly will it hurt?"

He chuckled lightly. "Well, from the sounds the other subjects made during the test, I can't imagine it feeling all too pleasant. And I believe we'll need about a pint for the tests to be successful, but working off of your height, weight, and general size and age, that should only be enough to make you feel disoriented, and maybe you'll fall into a state of what I like to call being unknowingly conscious, when it feels like you're not conscious or that you're falling unconscious, but you're really not. Oh, and don't worry about gaining it back after we've finished. After all of the failed experiments lately, we've got plenty to spare, and much of it matches your type."

"Well, what about the people who lost that blood in the first place? Did they get enough to replace that?" I asked, nervously looking at the –bats as they developed hungry glances at me.

He didn't respond, and instead looked to the Grunt at the door. "Miss, why don't you collect the blood we're going to replace Rei's with from the back room just in case? It's type A."

The Grunt girl nodded, and went back to the room Colress was talking about. When she came back, I had to shield my eyes from the container she was holding, because seeing that much blood removed from a person is pretty much my phobia, because then I want to know if the person/people who supplied that much died or not, because I didn't even know there was that much blood in you to begin with! But anyway, then Colress turned to me again. "Would you maybe like to take a seat?" he offered, taking a wooden chair (with red stains on it) and dragging it over to me, before I sat down nervously in it.

"Is there anything we could do to make this hurt less?" I asked anxiously right as Colress glanced at the –bats expectantly, about to give them their orders.

He turned around. "Not that I can think of. If I were you, I'd just close my eyes and imagine the help you're giving to scientific research."

"Okay, no, I'm not doing that, because frankly, I don't care about science, so you'll need to tell me to do something else or I'm just going to leave," I said. The Grunt by the door stared me down threateningly.

"…Okay. Just imagine that you're a cup, and you're being slurped from or something," he answered plainly.

"Are you kidding? That's even worse! I'm outta here," I said, standing up and heading towards the door. Right as the Grunt was about to cry out for her Pokemon to shock me, Colress stopped her. "No, I cannot have her be contaminated like that!" He stopped her rapidly. "Listen, Rei, you must do this, or else you may not be able to have your true potential recognized! Also…" He closed in on my ear. "If you agree to this, I'll answer whatever question you want me to."

My eyes widened excitedly, thinking of the possibilities, and I forgot what I was signing up for right then. "Yeah, alright," I said, trying to keep it cool, but I was really asking myself in anticipation what I would ask him, and what was the most important. Some of these questions included; "Where's Blue?" "Have you captured anyone named Hisashi yet?" "Where are my Pokemon, and who's using them?" and "Do you know where Daven went to?" Although to tell the truth, I'd be wasting my question if I asked that last one.

"Are you ready, Ms. Kurosama?" Colress asked, glancing at his squadron of –bats readily.

"I guess," I answered, nodding slightly.

"Alright, great. Zubat use Leech Life on Rei until you've collected a sufficient amount of blood," Colress commanded. "And please remember not to bite any major arteries this time, because if you remember what happened the last time you did that, it wasn't too pretty. And Golbat, you stay here, because she's much too small for you to be sucking blood from. Maybe we can try and request for a larger male subject to be brought in next? Perhaps Crasher Wake of Sinnoh? You can suck on him all you want, Golbat. But for now, stay put or else."

Immediately, the Zubat all lunged for me, and I instinctively sprang from my chair. "Never mind, I quit, bail, BAIL-!" I began, before one of the Zubat bit the back of my leg, and I fell over and started screaming in fear and pain.

This is going to sound weird, but I could feel the blood being taken from me. As I was kicking and wailing and screaming, every area the Zubat were taking blood from became all tingly like it was asleep as they were sucking it and stayed like that after they went off to deposit their fill into the vat my blood was going in. It wasn't until one specific Zubat bit the upper part of my right arm that I started to get dizzy, and I knew I was getting weaker. In a way, I felt like a beanbag chair that was letting its beans spill all over the carpet, but instead of beans it was blood and instead of spilling on the carpet it was being forcibly sucked out by a ton of Zubat and deposited into a tub.

Finally, after I was almost weak enough to black out, Colress cried out, "That's enough for now! I'll inspect our takings in a moment, but first we need to give her new blood and some medical attention stat."

Basically what happened after that was that Colress got me some more blood from someone he wouldn't tell me the name of without that being my question, and he bandaged me up. "So then, what do you want to know?" Colress asked as I dizzily made my way over to the door where the Grunt was standing.

I turned around. "Tell me how long I'm going to be here, and what other kind of stupid stuff I'm going to have to do while I'm here," I slurred non-threateningly, far too tired to even be standing.

His smile turned into a frown instantaneously. "I can't tell you any of that," he replied.

"You promised you'd answer any one question I had, you liar!" I growled. "You have to, or else I'm going to spill all that blood you just took from me onto the floor!"

"NO! No, le-let's not get rash," he stammered, obviously frightened. "Okay, I'll answer your questions, but don't tell anyone it was me who did it. You neither, Grunt," he said, pointing to the girl by the front door, who nodded. "You're going to be here as long as we see fit, and while you're here, we're going to..." he trailed off, probably unsure if he was really supposed to be telling me this info. "Well…Even I'm not positive about that. I just hope it's not anything too nasty. You're a very interesting specimen indeed."

"Those answers were so bad, that if they needed to shoot and kill everyone who gave bad answers with a Hyper Beam , they'd use a Tri Hyper Beam on you instead of that!" I slurred incoherently as the Grunt led me out the door. "I'm never helping you again!" I called down the hall.

"I wouldn't count on it!" He called in reply right before the door to his lab slammed shut behind me and the Grunt. For the most part, I was too lightheaded to take that comment to mind at the time, although now of course I knew that he was right in saying that I'd be helping him a lot more often from then on for various reasons, and usually it was the only thing that happened around there that I was involved in directly, although often there would be some kind of ruckus happening outside my room that I'd watch sometimes, but nothing too overwhelmingly important, so I guess I'll just skip ahead to the part where Colress needed my 'assistance' again.

I was sitting in my room, bored as always (although I had come up with a pastime of taking my shoes off and beating the heels onto the ground rhythmically as if my shoes were drumsticks), until the same girl Plasma Grunt opened the door. "Colress needs you again, dearie," she said coldly, taking my hand and leading me down the hallway.

"Oh, great. What does he need this time? My hands?" I questioned sarcastically, but then I got sort of paranoid that he did need to amputate a body part.

"No, but I certainly hope he tries to do that soon," she answered seriously, glaring at me.

"Really, now? You're still peeved about that one comment I made about that green letter guy?" I asked incredulously.

"Of course I am! And the fact that you're not acting remorseful at all is only driving the nail farther into the headstone," The grunt answered loudly.

"…I don't think they put nails in headstones, lady," I corrected her. "Believe me, I would know."

"Oh, who asked you?" she growled. "I'd have my Watchog gnaw your head off right now, but Colress would have a fit if I tried. He doesn't want anyone harming you around here, that stupid bloke. I don't think you're that special, but if he wants to believe that you have the 'potential' he's been looking for, it's his lost paycheck…"

"Yeah, but wouldn't it be better for him if I were dead?" I asked. "I mean, he wouldn't have to convince me to agree to his tests, I'd be dead and I couldn't do anything about it."

The grunt smirked sadistically. "You're right…I should propose that to him sometime later…nice job planning your own funeral, you dim-witted broad!"

"You do know that he's going to say no, though, right?" I verified. "What I said was just theoretical."

"Doesn't matter!" the grunt laughed, before pushing me into Colress' room and slamming the door behind her.

Basically, he was standing there in the middle of the room like he had been the first time I was there, but now there was a complicated machine in the corner. Not only that, but now there was a mess of Plasma guys lining all the walls, some of them with their Pokemon sent out, their Pokemon mostly being Liepard and other cat Pokemon of the sort.

"I can already see where this is going," I growled irritably as Colress turned around to face me. "Are you going to see how long it takes me to die while those Pokemon attack me?"

"No, but the Pokemon will be trying to harm you in due time," Colress ensured, chuckling. "There's just some physical adjustments you'll have to go through first."

"Uh-huh. And by that, you mean you're going to saw off my arms and legs first me?" I confirmed sarcastically.

Colress laughed. "No, of course not! What do you think I am, a mad scientist?"

"Yeah," I answered plainly.

He scoffed a little bit. "Well, I think I should explain first before you start coming up with all these rude judgments of me. A few years ago, there was an incident where Bill, the man who first created the PC systems you regularly see in Pokemon Centers throughout the Pokemon World, was transformed into a Rattata by his system in some odd accident, although it was easily reversed by a young man who came to visit him later that day."

"Oh gravy, you're turning me into a Rattata, aren't you?" I asked in slight disbelief, but mostly I had an even tone.

"Not quite," Colress answered. "But yes, you will be transformed into a Pokemon, just not a Rattata. Bill has already spread around his story of what it was like being a Pokemon, but you're going to be changed into a different Pokemon. Have you ever heard or seen a Pokemon named Sentret before?"

"Yeah, that's like Rattata-New and Improved Johto Addition, isn't it?"

"A little. But anyway, you will be transformed into a Sentret, and then I will order my associates to let loose their Pokemon so they may chase you as much as they please until you faint."

"What are you studying, again?" I questioned, annoyed. "Basically what you're doing now is killing me for the hell of it, then? Whatever happened to that whole thing about me being your best test subject and that nothing is supposed to happen to me without your say so?"

"Well, I said so. Not only that, however, but the Sentret you're going to be in the conscious of won't die, because I've given the instructions to these Pokemon that they are not to fatally harm you in any way," Colress explained. "You're just going to faint, or, in other words, get knocked out, and I'll revive you before anything too nasty happens. You see, I need to do this study so I can understand what a Pokemon goes through when it faints or takes massive damage so that I can find a way to prevent the Pokemon from feeling either of these two things so they may keep fighting when they're at a point where they should be unconscious."

"So basically, from the little I gathered from that, you're going to teach Pokemon not to faint anymore by having me faint and describe what happened?" I questioned. "That's insane… I think."

"Well, you're not really going to be describe it, you'll instead have the memory of it copied from your brain, given to the Pokemon doing the copying, and then said Pokemon will project the memory for me to examine myself," Colress said. "I do this because I know you'd lie about it."

"Hm, yeah, pretty much," I said. "So, how much will this test hurt?"

"I haven't tried it on anyone else yet, so I wouldn't know," Colress shrugged. "Probably a lot, seeing is how these particular Liepard and Persian have all been specially trained and genetically enhanced by the research I did with your blood about two weeks ago. Also considering that they're all a much higher level than the Sentret you're going to be turned into, you'll most likely be KO'd within two to three hard hits, all of which will most likely hurt more than anything you've ever experienced in your human life."

"And what do I get in exchange for helping you with this?" I asked.

"Another free question, although this time it will have to be a less specific one, since you're doing less for me this time around," Colress answered.

"Yeah, because getting knocked out doesn't take any effort at all," I growled sarcastically. "Do you think I _want_ to get attacked by those things?!"

"No matter," Colress said. "Someone escort Ms. Kurosama into the machine, please, so we can start this experiment."

Immediately, one of the Plasma grunts seized my hands, and he pushed me forcefully into the 'transfer tube', I guess I could call it. As Colress was about to press the button, I saw the happiest grin develop on his face, and he said something muffled about this being too exciting to bear. Then, he finally pressed it, and I could somewhat feel my consciousness being forcefully ripped out of my body, and it was thrown through a tube or something. I can't remember much for a minute or two, but when my consciousness powered up again, I could feel my little tiny arms and my (admittedly cute) fuzzy tail, and I was a Sentret. As if I'd be anything else.

A few seconds after I was transferred, the tube keeping me in opened, and I padded out of the tube and looked up at Colress, burning with rage. "So, Rei, are you in there? How do you feel?" He asked with the kindest expression ever on his face, as if he knew that bad stuff beyond his control was about to happen to me, and he was looking forward to it but not showing it.

In response to him, I felt for all my little Sentret paw fingers and gave him a rude gesture with both paws. "I'll take that as a sign that you're safely in there. Okay, you all can release the cats now!"

All at once, the cats all started glaring at me and growling, before all of them leaped for me at once. One of the Liepard nearly got me in the face, but I managed to scurry up Colress' leg and rest on his shoulder. "Really, now, you're doing that?" he asked humouredly. "Get down from there, you silly Sentret!"

"I'm not a Sentret and you know that, you jerkwad! And no, I'm not coming down to meet my maker or anything like that!" I squeaked in a voice a bit higher pitched than my normal one. It sounded like one of those weird ringtones you get off of weird sketchy websites except that you could actually understand it and it wasn't ear-gratingly annoying. It was actually more like a little girl's voice, now that I think about it. And that realization made that entire spiel about what I thought it sounded like completely unneeded. I'm not taking it out, though, so enjoy.

"You can speak?! How incredible!" he exclaimed incredulously. "This is a test I'll need to do more often! This is so fascinating!"

"Does that mean I can be changed back now that I've done something 'interesting' for you?" I asked.

"No, because we're still holding this test right now, so go down there before I'm forced to push you down there, and trust me, I don't want to do that and potentially ruin the experiment," Colress replied, preparing to brush me off.

I hissed at him, before scurrying down, only to be met with the open jaws of a Liepard. Immediately, before I could even try to escape, it bit into me and started shaking me around furiously. I could see little blood splatters developing on the floor, and I cried out in pain.

Finally, trying to end me, the Liepard tossed me skyward so it could catch me in its mouth again and eat me this time—believe me, I know the mannerisms of these things all too well from Daven's stupid one—but Colress caught me. "There will be no consuming of Pokemon right now," He scolded the Liepard, bopping it on the nose. "Especially not since this one is my favorite patient."

Liepard hissed, before stalking away. That didn't stop there from being a ton of other, hungrier cats waiting for Colress to put me down so they could have a nice little snack out of me, though, so as Colress was about to speak to me, I bit him in the shoulder and scampered off, the cats chasing fast after me.

**I'm a jerk and I know it. I'm not even going to ask any questions. I'll leave it all to you. Goodbye. Meow. I'm a kitty. No, I'm not. I must stop. I am rambling. ERRRRGGGH-!**


End file.
